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:

AWARDS

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) unveiled the winners of their annual SAG Awards for both movies and television last night. Among the crime drama honorees were The Trial of the Chicago 7 which won the award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture (the equivalent of Best Picture), and Daniel Kaluuya won the Best Actor in a Motion Picture prize for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah. On the TV side, Jason Bateman was named Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Ozark.

THE BIG SCREEN/MOVIES

Netflix will buy the rights to produce two sequels to Knives Out, with director, Rian Johnson, and star, Daniel Craig, set to return to the franchise. The Knives Out sequels have casting underway, and the production team hopes to begin filming in Greece in late June. The original Knives Out was a murder mystery that starred Craig as detective Benoit Blanc investigating the death of the wealthy author, Harlan Thrombey (played by the late Christopher Plummer in one of his last roles).

Salma Hayek has joined the cast of House of Gucci, Ridley Scott’s next film that also stars Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jeremy Irons, Al Pacino, Jack Huston, and Jared Leto. The film tells the story of how Gaga’s character, Patrizia Reggiani, infamously carried out a hit on her ex-husband, Maurizio Gucci, after he sold the Gucci fashion empire to an investment group. Hayek will play Pina Auriemma, a friend of Reggiani and a clairvoyant who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for allegedly organizing the killing for a fee.

Armie Hammer has been dropped from another film following accusations of sexual assault against him, this time the Cold War thriller, The Billion Dollar Spy. Based on a real-life story, The Billion Dollar Spy was to have starred Hammer as Brad Reid, a fresh arrival at the Moscow station of the CIA, where he’s approached by Soviet engineer, Adolf Tolkachev (Mads Mikkelsen). No re-casting details have been released just yet.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

CBS has given a formal order for the revival series, CSI: Vegas, the first new installment in the "CSI" franchise since CSI: Cyber was canceled in 2016. "Vegas" will see original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation stars Wallace Langham, William Petersen, and Jorja Fox reprise their roles alongside new cast members Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria, Mel Rodriguez, and Mandeep Dhillon. Per CBS, the new series "opens a brand new chapter in Las Vegas, the city where it all began. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant new team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City."

HBO Max is adapting the true-crime docuseries, The Staircase, into a limited scripted series that will star Colin Firth as American novelist, Michael Peterson, who was on trial in 2001 for killing his wife. The writer claimed his wife died at their home after falling down the stairs, but a medical examiner determined she'd been bludgeoned to death. Peterson was convicted in 2003 for the murder and spent eight years in prison. In 2011, he was granted a new trial, but before it could start, he submitted to an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time served and set free.

Nicky Torchia, Michael Rivera, and Ibrahim Renno are set for recurring roles opposite Christopher Meloni, Dylan McDermott, Tamara Taylor, and Danielle Moné Truitt in NBC’s Law & Order: SVU spinoff series, Law & Order: Organized Crime. The new series follows Elliot Stabler's (Meloni) return to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss. Stabler will aim to rebuild his life as part of a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.

Netflix revealed that Lucifer will return in May for the second half of Season 5. The supernatural procedural series, which initially aired on Fox for three seasons before moving to Netflix, follows Tom Ellis’s Lucifer, who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell. He resigns his throne and abandons his kingdom for Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping LAPD detective, Chloe Decker. Lucifer began airing season 5 in August and will come to an end with an upcoming sixth season.

Shout! Studios has acquired worldwide rights to Emmy-winning director Nancy Buirski’s documentary, A Crime on the Bayou, the third in her trilogy of films that explore vital stories from the Civil Rights era. The project revisits the case of Gary Duncan, who as a Black teenager in 1966 was arrested in Louisiana in a racially-charged incident. Duncan’s "crime" was to break up a fight between white and Black youths outside a newly-integrated school, during which he "gently [laid] his hand on a white boy’s arm," setting in motion a prosecution for assault on a minor. Duncan was defended by Richard Sobol, a young Jewish attorney, and the two developed a friendship as they took their fight for Duncan’s exoneration all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Debbi Mack interviewed crime writer, Daniella Bernett, on the Crime Cafe podcast, discussing Bernett's latest novel, Old Sins Never Die.

Writer Types welcomed Peter Robinson, author of the long-running DCI Banks novels series, and also spoke with debut author, Robyn Gigl (By Way Of Sorrow), and French author, Johana Gustawsson (Blood Song).

The latest Mysteryrats Maze podcast featured the mystery short story, "Sweet Tea and Deviled Eggs" by Sandra Murphy, as read by actor, Donna Beavers.

Meet the Thriller Author chatted with bestselling author Peter May, who was born in Glasgow, but now lives in France. His latest book, The Night Gate, brings back forensics expert, Enzo Macleod, and spans two murders across three generations: from war-torn London to the deadly enemy facing the world in 2020, the coronavirus. And Enzo's investigations reveal an unexpected link between the murders - the Mona Lisa.

Wrong Place, Write Crime had a Q&A with Michael Poo‪l‬, talking about his episode of A Grifter's Song, "Rocky Mountain Lie."

Karen Dionne was the latest guest on My Favorite Detective Stories. Karen is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of the award-winning psychological suspense novel, The Marsh King’s Daughter.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club celebrated Woman's History Month by featuring four fiction books that include real women of history.

Queer Writers of Crime spoke with Marco Carocari, who grew up in Switzerland and worked in a hardware store before traveling the globe working for the airlines and later as an internationally published photographer. His debut crime novel is Blackout.

Lynda LaPlante's Listening to the Dead forensic podcast tackled the topic, "Cause of Death – Poisoning."

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

Paramount Pictures is set to remake the acclaimed South Korean crime thriller, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, with original star Don Lee (aka Ma Dong-seok) reprising his lead role as a gang boss looking for redemption. Lee is also part of the producer team that includes Sylvester Stallone and Braden Aftergood under their production banner, Balboa Productions. The original film centered on the fierce and feared gang boss, Jang Dong-su (Lee), who barely survives a violent attack by an elusive serial killer. With his reputation damaged, the only way for Jang to restore his image is to find the attacker and exact revenge. He thus forms an unlikely partnership with a local detective to catch the sadistic criminal simply known as "K."

Grindstone Entertainment Group has acquired North American rights to the crime drama, One Day as a Lion, written by and starring Scott Caan (Hawaii Five-0), from Roxwell Films. The project is currently in production in Oklahoma and boasts an all-star ensemble that also includes Academy Award-winner J.K. Simmons, Frank Grillo, Michael Carmen Pitt, Marianne Rendón, Taryn Manning, and Virginia Madsen. The story centers on Jackie Powers (Caan), who is down on his luck and desperate to save his son from juvenile delinquency, a fate he knows all too well. Jackie handles collections for Dom Lorenzo (Pitt) and mob outfit boss Pauly Russo (Grillo). When he fails to collect from  local cowboy legend, Walter Boggs (Simmons), he finds himself on the run with waitress-turned-hostage, Lola Brisky (Rendón). Forging an unlikely alliance, Jackie poses as Lola’s fiancé in the hopes of satisfying the will of her terminally ill, serial divorcee mother, Valerie (Madsen), to finance Lola’s new life and a criminal defense lawyer for Jackie’s son.

Chris Pratt is in talks to star in and reteam with the Russo Brothers (Avengers: Infinity War) on Electric State, an adaptation of the illustrated novel by Simon Stålenhag. Millie Bobby Brown is already attached to star, with Avengers writing duo, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, penning the script. Set in an alternative future, Electric State centers on a teenage girl (Brown) who realizes that a strange but sweet robot has been sent to her by her missing brother. She and the robot set out to find the brother in an imaginative world of humans mixing with robots, uncovering a grand conspiracy in the process.

Reba McEntire will star with fellow Reba alum, Melissa Peterman, in The Hammer, a Lifetime movie inspired by the life of traveling circuit judge, Kim Wanker. McEntire’s real-life partner, Rex Linn (CSI: Miami), and Kay Shioma Metchie (Totally Normal) also star. Per the logline, the film follows Kim Wheeler (McEntire), an outspoken, firecracker lawyer who is appointed Judge of the 5th District of Nevada and is one of the few traveling judges left in America. After the reigning judge dies under suspicious circumstances, Kim finds herself covering a circuit that stretches between Las Vegas and Reno—a rugged, often desolate area where anything and everything can happen. With gavel in hand, she lays down the law with a no-nonsense brand of justice, that quickly earns her the nickname "The Hammer." As the investigation of the former judge’s death heats up, Kim’s sister Kris (Peterman), who runs the local brothel, suddenly becomes the prime suspect, and Kim must work even harder to make certain the appropriate justice is served.

James Bond producer, Barbara Broccoli, has revealed that it will be "at least two years" before the next 007 movie begins filming, and that the task of finding an actor to replace Daniel Craig hasn’t begun. Broccoli said, "Nobody’s in the running. We’re working out where to go with him, we’re talking that through. There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time.”

Searchlight Pictures released a trailer for the whimsical murder mystery, See How They Run, starring a detective duo played by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan. The film opens in theaters Sept. 30. The first footage introduces viewers to Rockwell’s seasoned Inspector Stoppard and Ronan’s rookie Constable Stalker. The pair team up to solve a murder most foul in London’s West End theater district during the 1950s, investigating the seedy underbelly of England’s glamorous of artists and turning over a litany of brash, creative suspects. David Oyelowo, Adrien Brody, and Ruth Wilson also feature in prominent roles.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Magnum P.I. has been saved after a deal was struck with NBC for new episodes of the action drama starring Jay Hernandez, following its cancellation by CBS last month. The twenty episodes will be split into two seasons with an option for more. Now that an agreement on the order has been reached, the cast is being picked up and finalizing deals to return for the new seasons. Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill, Tim Kang, and Amy Hill starred alongside Hernandez in the CBS series. Showrunner Eric Guggenheim is also expected to return.

The BBC has greenlit a second season of the whodunnit thriller, Sherwood, immediately after the conclusion of the first. Starring David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread), Sherwood is a murder mystery six-parter inspired by events that took place in the Nottinghamshire mining village where Graham grew up. The second series will once again take inspiration from the pit villages and surrounding towns, continuing the theme of examining the lives and legacy of those governed by Britain’s industrial past and especially the mid-1980s miner’s strikes that rocked the nation.

CSI fan favorite, Wallace Langham, will join HBO’s Perry Mason in the second season, recurring as Melville Phipps, a Los Angeles native and attorney for a very wealthy oil baroness. Here’s the logline for season 2 of the drama that stars Matthew Rhys in the title role: "Months after the end of the Dodson trial, Perry's (Matthew Rhys) moved off the farm, [and] he’s even traded his leather jacket for a pressed suit. It’s the worst year of the Depression, and Perry and Della (Juliet Rylance) have set the firm on a safer path pursuing civil cases instead of the tumultuous work that criminal cases entail. Unfortunately, there isn’t much work for Paul (Chris Chalk) in wills and contracts, so he’s been out on his own. An open-and-closed case overtakes the city of Los Angeles, and Perry’s pursuit of justice reveals that not everything is always as it seems."

Ravi Patel is set to recur in the FX limited series, Justified: City Primeval in the role of Rick Newley. The series is a spinoff of FX’s hit Justified and is inspired by the Elmore Leonard crime novel, City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit. Seven years following the end of Justified, the limited series returns to once again follow U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (played by original series star Timothy Olyphant) after he left Kentucky for his new home base in Miami. The new series will find Raylan balancing life as a marshal and part-time father of 14-year-old Willa, who will be played by Olyphant’s real-life daughter, Vivian. A chance encounter on a Florida highway sends him to Detroit where he crosses paths with Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook), aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent sociopath who’s already slipped through the fingers of Detroit’s finest once and wants to do so again. Other previously announced cast members include Aunjanue Ellis, Adelaide Clemens, Vondie Curtis Hall, Marin Ireland, Victor Williams, and Norbert Leo Butz.

Michaela Coel, John Turturro, and Paul Dano have joined the cast of Prime Video’s TV reboot of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, although their roles are being kept under wraps. They join previously announced Donald Glover and Maya Erskine, who star in the title roles in the series from Amazon Studios. The project is a reboot of New Regency’s 2005 Doug Liman-directed action comedy film that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple who are surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.

Scandinavia’s leading streamer, Viaplay, has ordered End of Summer, a psychological thriller based on Anders de la Motte’s bestselling Swedish novel of the same name. Jens Jonsson (Young Wallander) and Henrik Georgsson (The Bridge) are on board to direct the series, with Björn Carlström and Stefan Thunberg (Wallander) as head writers. The show opens on a summer evening in 1984 when a 5-year-old boy vanishes in rural southern Sweden. The police investigation fails to find the truth, leaving behind rumors, suspicion, and a grieving family. Twenty years later, the boy’s older sister Vera is leading a group therapy session in Stockholm, when a young man describes a strangely familiar childhood memory of a disappearance. A shaken Vera travels home to her fractured family to uncover, once and for all, what really happened in the summer that never ended.

Marc Cherry’s anthology series, Why Women Kill, will not get a third installment, after all. The Paramount+ drama was renewed for a third season in December and was firming up its lead cast with big-name actors in negotiations to star when the decision was made to axe the program. The abrupt decision on the eve of production is surprising as Nicole Clemens, President of Paramount+ Original Scripted Series, touted the series’ strong Season 2 performance in the Season 3 renewal announcement, revealing that it ranked "within the top 10 series on Paramount+ in terms of both overall engagement and new subscriber acquisition." Set in 1949, Season 2 explored what it means to be beautiful, the hidden truth behind the façades people present to the world, the effects of being ignored and overlooked by society, and the lengths one woman will go in order to finally belong. Each season of the series featured a different set of characters, with the first installment starring Lucy Liu, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny were interviewed by CBS News about their co-authored thriller, State of Terror.

The latest episode of the Crime Cafe podcast featured Debbi Mack's interview with graphic novelist and crime writer, Fabian Nicieza, whose latest novel is The Self-Made Widow.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah talked about mystery and suspense reads to keep Pride alive all year long.

On the Queer Writers of Crime podcast, David S. Pederson, Lev Raphael, and Brad Shreve offered suggestions for your reading pleasure.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, special guest co-host, Colin Conway, joined regular host, Frank Zafiro, for part two of an interview with Mark Bergin, who talked about his short story work and his stint at teaching. Also, there were book recommendations for your summer reads from a number of previous guests.

Jack Lutz chatted with CrimeTime FM host, Paul Burke, about his new novel, London in Black; dystopian murder mysteries; London's past; thriller pace; Cleopatra's Needle; and a guest appearance by Jack's Mum's cat.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Edith Maxwell, writer, blogger, and long-time member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). She's the author of several cozy mystery series, including the Agatha-winning historical Quaker Midwife Mysteries.

The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine podcast series featured an Independence Day story by an award-winning writer for the Las Vegas Sun who made his fiction debut in EQMM’s Department of First Stories. Just in time for July 4th, Michael Grimala reads from his story "A Trunk Full of Illegal Fireworks," from the July/August 2021 issue of EQMM.

All About Agatha interviewed Ruth Ware about her new psychological crime thriller out this summer, which may be "her most Christie-ish yet." 

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

Warner Bros. won a bidding war over the heist picture, The Sundance Kid Might Have Some Regrets, which Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) is attached to produce and star in. The upcoming film is based on Leyna Krow’s short story of the same name, centered on a pair of twin bank robbers. While one twin, Maggie, boasts supernatural powers including telekinesis and super-strength, her sibling heads up the operation and serves as narrator of the tale. Maggie begins to second-guess the life she and her sister lead when their latest heist goes awry.

Leigh Whannell is in negotiations to direct The Green Hornet and Kato for Universal. The studio optioned rights to The Green Hornet in the spring of 2020, after co-founders Michael Helfant and Bradley Gallo acquired control of the motion picture franchise from the family of the original creator, George W. Trendle, in a competitive bidding war. The Green Hornet was one of early radio’s most popular adventure shows (predating Superman) before being turned into 1940s movie serials and the 1966 TV series that introduced Bruce Lee (Kato) to the U.S. The classic story focuses on Britt Reid, owner-publisher of The Daily Sentinel. Armed with knowledge from his sources, cool weapons, a supercar known as the Black Beauty, and teamed with his trusty aide Kato, Reid became The Green Hornet, a vigilante crime fighter wanted by the police and feared by the criminal world.

Lionsgate has acquired movie adaptation rights to Thieves’ Gambit, an upcoming young adult thriller novel by Kayvion Lewis. Steven Caple Jr., whose directing credits include Creed 2 and the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, is attached to helm. The book’s plot centers on a young woman, raised by her parents to be an expert thief, who must enter a dangerous, cutthroat competition that pits her against other young, talented thieves where the winner takes all.

Gina Rodriguez, Zachary Levi, Everly Carganilla, and newcomer Connor Esterson are set to star in the upcoming Spy Kids reboot from Netflix, Skydance, and Spyglass. Spy Kids creator, Robert Rodriguez, will write, direct and produce the film, which will introduce the world to a whole new family of spies. The film marks Rodriguez’s second family film with Netflix following the success of the 2020 family action film, We Can Be Heroes. This latest Spy Kids chapter is set after the children of the world’s greatest secret agents unwittingly help a powerful game developer unleash a computer virus that gives him control of all technology, leading them to become spies themselves to save their parents and the world.

Universal offered a glimpse at 2023’s Fast & Furious X, including a first look at new cast members Jason Momoa and Brie Larson. The Louis Leterrier-directed 10th installment is currently in production for release next summer.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The BBC is partnering with Rise Films for Thank You & Goodbye, a drama based on the phone hacking scandal that rocked Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The Salisbury Poisonings writers, Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, and director, Saul Dibb, are attached to the project. The British phone-hacking scandal was one of the most high-profile and controversial of the past decades and Rise Films gained access to journalists, private investigators, and perpetrators who were involved for the show (which started life as a documentary). Thank You & Goodbye examines the newsroom of the News of the World, the British tabloid that was forced to close due to the scandal, and how journalists hacked the private messages and voicemails of the likes of Steve Coogan, Hugh Grant, and Sienna Miller. The ensuing fallout led to a highly-publicized inquiry that sparked 100 arrests and changed the UK’s relationship with the tabloid press forever.

Paula Malcomson (Redemption) is set as a series regular opposite Giancarlo Esposito in The Driver, AMC’s remake of the British drama series that is set to launch next year on AMC and AMC+. The U.S. series comes from creators Danny Brocklehurst and Sunu Gonera and showrunner, Theo Travers. It stars Esposito as a taxi driver whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to chauffer a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern ports. The 2014 British series similarly followed star David Morrissey as a cabbie whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to be the driver for a criminal gang.

Dark Winds, the Native-led Western noir crime thriller, has been renewed for a second season. The AMC Studios-produced series, which will return next year with another 6-episode installment, follows two Navajo police officers—Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) and Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon)—in the 1970s as they investigate a series of seemingly unrelated crimes that bring up their own personal demons. Jessica Matten also stars as Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito. An adaptation of the Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman, the production worked closely with the Navajo Nation to film on location on tribal lands in New Mexico—Tesuque Pueblo and Cochiti Pueblo. Ordered to series last year, Dark Winds was 35 years in the making, with executive producer Robert Redford optioning Hillerman’s book collection more than three decades ago. Along with Redford, the series is executive produced by creator Graham Roland, George R.R. Martin, Anne Hillerman, Chris Eyre, Vince Calandra, Vince Gerardis, Tina Elmo, and Zahn McClarnon (who also is portraying Leaphorn).

Shoshannah Stern, star of Sundance Now’s This Close, the first major U.S. series to be created and written by deaf people, is back at AMC Networks, developing Disquiet, a drama thriller series about a Certified Deaf Interpreter. Deadline reported that the project, which Stern is attached to star in, write, and exec produce, is in the early stages of development at the network. The series follows Cassie Edwards, a Certified Deaf Interpreter (CDI), who is called back home to assist in a case involving the mysterious death of the former head of the school for the Deaf she herself attended. A former student of the school is the only witness and Cassie may be the only one who is able to understand him, leading her deeper into the case and forcing her to confront her own past.

Kevin Zegers has been tapped as a series regular on ABC’s new series, The Rookie: Feds, headlined by Niecy Nash-Betts. Co-created by Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, The Rookie: Feds stars Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The spinoff was introduced in a two-episode arc on Season 4 of The Rookie, where Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of Simone Clark when one of her former students is a suspect in a terror attack. Zegers joins Nash-Betts, Frankie Faison, and Felix Solis, who guest starred in the Rookie backdoor pilot episodes as Christopher “Cutty” Clark and Special Agent Matthew Garza, respectively, as well as Britt Robertson, who recently joined the project as a new series regular, playing Laura Stensen. Zegers will play Brendon Acres, who is fresh out of Quantico with a lot to prove.

Paramount Global’s streaming service Paramount+ is continuing to invest in original content sourced from international markets, unveiling a slate of seven new titles with plans to commission 150 international originals by 2025. The slate includes several crime dramas, far too many to be summarized in a list, but some of the headliners include a drama with John Leguizamo starring as Mexican drug lord, El Chapo. You can check them all out here. The streamer also revealed casting details for the previously announced The Chemistry of Death, a psychological crime series based on Simon Beckett’s best-selling novels, which will star Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful, Star Trek: Picard) as forensic anthropologist David Hunter, alongside Katie Leung, Jeanne Goursaud, Nick Blood, Amy Nuttall, David Hayman, and Hardy Krüger, Jr.

CBS announced its 2022-23 fall season, which will debut on September 19 with four new shows and 18 returning series, including the 20th season of NCIS. New time periods were also assigned to Ghosts, S.W.A.T., NCIS: Los Angeles, and CSI: Las Vegas.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up, featuring an excerpt from Pint of No Return by Dana Mentink, read by actor Ariel Linn.

Speaking of Mysteries chatted with Dwyer Murphy about his debut novel, An Honest Living, which takes readers on an odyssey through time and space in turn-of-the-21st-century New York City, complete with its own Ulises (Ulysses), who just happens to be a Venezuelan poet. Along this journey, with nods to past noir novelists such as Ross Macdonald and Raymond Chandler, are cases of mistaken identity, missing manuscripts, and doses of wry humor about the nature of cabaret laws in New York City that prevent dancing in bars, even when there’s a Samba band.

Lev Raphael returned to Queer Writers of Crime to talk with Brad about having his full Nick Hoffman Academia Mystery Series republished; historical misquotations; research; the joy of mingling with other mystery authors, and more.

On Wrong Place Write Crime, guest co-host, Colin Conway, joined Frank Zafiro to interview Mark Bergin, who discusses his time as a law enforcement officer, as well as his novel, Apprehension. Also, Lance at Down and Out Books provided a June publishing update.

On Writers Detective Bureau, Detective Adam Richardson talked about sketching a crime scene; how immigration status violations were handled in California circa 1995; and what would happen if a journalist went trespassing to get the scoop on a major crime.

Emilya Naymark stopped by My Favorite Detective Stories to discuss her latest novel, Behind the Lie.

Red Hot Chili Writers discussed serial killer thrillers with crime writer David Fennell; chatted about the Jaipur Lit Fest and the Borders Book Fest; tackled the heatwave; and were rudely interrupted by a famous writer with no opposable thumbs.

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke spoke with Canadian author, Laurie Petrou, about her new novel Stargazer; toxic friendships; the limits of art; and canoes.

Karen Odden was interviewed on It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club about Down a Dark River, the first book in the Inspector Corravan series.

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

Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel has received a title and a release window. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will hit Netflix "this holiday season," according to Johnson, who made the announcement in a Twitter thread. The director went on to express his excitement to continue his Daniel Craig-fronted franchise in the vein of Agatha Christie’s mystery novels, praising her knack for "stretching the genre conceptually." Johnson seemed to indicate that "Glass Onion" will be tonally different from Knives Out, with Craig’s detective Benoit Blanc at the center of a very different mystery.

Nicole Kidman is reteaming with Amazon Studios for the Mimi Cave-directed thriller, Holland, Michigan. The feature, based on Andrew Sodroski’s (Manhunt) script, topped the 2013 Black List and involves secrets that lurk beneath a Midwestern town, with "a Hitchcock bent." Kidman will star and produce with Per Saari under her Blossom Films.

Oscar winner Billy Bob Thornton is boarding Studiocanal and Picture Company’s "high-concept thriller," Role Play, also starring Kaley Cuoco and David Oyelowo. To be directed by Thomas Vincent on a script from Seth Owen and Andrew Baldwin, the project revolves around a married couple (Cuoco and Oyelowo) whose life turns upside down when secrets come out about each other’s pasts. Not much is known about Thornton’s role, but sources say he will play a key figure in the film—a mysterious stranger who encounters the couple.

Dakota Fanning will star alongside Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 3, the next film in the action franchise from director Antoine Fuqua. The casting reunites Fanning with Washington after the two starred together in the box office hit, Man on Fire, from 2004 when Fanning was ten years old. Sony has already set a release date of September 1, 2023 for The Equalizer 3, although the plot for the new film is being kept under wraps. Richard Wenk, who penned both of the previous films, wrote the screenplay.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Showtime is developing The Whites, a limited crime drama series starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke. Written by Tony Award-winning playwright and prolific screenwriter Jez Butterworth (Ford v. Ferrari; Spectre), the series is adapted from Richard Price’s novel of the same name. The description of The Whites reads, "Every detective is haunted by their White Whale, the perpetrator who got away because the justice system failed. Billy Graves (Hawke), once a rising star in his department and former member of a group of well-respected cops called the 'Wild Geese,' walks away from NYPD Homicide and joins the Nightwatch division, where his cases end when he clocks out— but his past comes calling when a seemingly straightforward murder case involving a White Whale unfolds, threatening his career, friendships, and family."

Courtney Lauren Penn and Thomas Jane's Renegade Entertainment have acquired Candice Fox's novel, Gathering Dark, for development as a series. Published in March of 2020, Gathering Dark centers on four women—a convicted killer, a gifted thief, a vicious gang lord, and a disillusioned cop—who together are a missing girl’s only hope.

Apple TV+ has handed an eight-episode series order to Criminal Record, a one-hour London thriller starring Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo as detectives in a tug of war over a historic murder conviction. An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives into a confrontation over an old murder case, one a young woman in the early stages of her career; the other a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy. The series touches on issues of race, institutional failure, and the quest to find common ground in a polarized Britain. Capaldi (Doctor Who) portrays Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty, and Jumbo (The Good Wife) plays Detective Sergeant June Lenker.

Ian Duff is set as a lead opposite Michaela McManus and Parker Young in Criminal Nature, ABC’s drama pilot from Rashad Raisani, 20th Television, and A+E Studios. Written by Raisani, Criminal Nature (fka untitled National Parks project) is described as a "propulsive, soapy procedural" set in the stunning world of America’s great outdoors. The story revolves around the agents who work for the ISB (Investigative Services Branch)—an elite law enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in our country’s 81,000 square miles of protected land. Duff will play Keldon, an ISB agent and Audrey’s (McManus) partner and fiancé. Keldon and Audrey team up to catch the killer — but their partnership is thrown for a loop when Clay, Audrey’s ex, joins their investigation.

Mehcad Brooks is joining Law & Order in season 22 of the NBC drama. He will help fill the void left by Anthony Anderson, who opted not to return after reprising his role in season 21 as Detective Kevin Bernard from the series’ original run. No character name or description is available yet for Brooks. Based on linear and digital viewing, the revival premiere of Law & Order that aired on Feb. 24, 2022 has totaled nearly 13 million total viewers. Like the original, it examines "The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders."

Netflix has renewed The Lincoln Lawyer for Season 2 with Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becki Newton, Jazz Raycole, and Angus Simpson set to reprise their roles. The 10-episode second season will be based on the fourth book in The Lincoln Lawyer series by Michael Connelly, The Fifth Witness. The renewal comes as no surprise following the show’s success on the streaming service, with Season 1 in the Netflix Global Top 10 in 90 countries. The Lincoln Lawyer follows the redemption of Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo), a Los Angeles attorney, who with hard work and hustle, regains much of what he lost due to addiction. His success is also thanks to his devoted supporters: his ex-wives Maggie (Campbell) and Lorna (Newton), his driver and unofficial sponsor Izzy (Raycole), and the best investigator in town—and Lorna’s newly minted fiancé—Cisco (Simpson).

Garret Dillahunt, Jeanine Serralles, Kaya Rosenthal, Michael Drayer, Taja V. Simpson, and newcomer Ellie Barone have signed on for recurring roles in the third season of Starz’s crime drama, Hightown. Created by Rebecca Cutter (Gotham), Hightown is set in the beautiful but bleak world of Cape Cod and follows police officer, Jackie Quiñone (Monica Raymund), as her journey to sobriety is overshadowed by a murder investigation dragging her into its fold.

Britt Robertson has been tapped as a series regular on ABC’s new series, The Rookie: Feds. Co-created by Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter, The Rookie: Feds stars Niecy Nash-Betts as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The spinoff was introduced in a two-part arc on Season 4 of The Rookie, where Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and the LA division of the FBI enlist the help of Simone Clark when one of her former students is a suspect in a terror attack. The cast also includes Frankie Faison, who plays Christopher "Cutty" Clark, and Felix Solis, who guest-starred as Special Agent Matthew Garza in the two Rookie: Feds backdoor-pilot episodes.

In the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Paramount+ series, Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone channels Henry Hill in Goodfellas and Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as Dwight "The General" Manfredi, an aging mafioso. Fresh out of prison after a 25-year sentence, Manfredi is sent by his criminal bosses to move to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he carves out an empire of his own in the buckle of the Bible belt.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Eva Björg Ægisdóttir (Night Shadows) & Will Dean (Bad Apples) were featured on Crime Time FM, discussing Nordic Noir, its appeal and landscape as a character, and the psychological element of Scandinavian fiction.

Author Jeffery Hess stopped by Wrong Place, Write Crime to talk about his Beachhead Trilogy, short stories, and his latest book.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah talked about their anticipated mystery and suspense reads for the second half of 2022.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed editor, reviewer, and speech writer, Max Folsom, to talk about her journey to writing mystery novels.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Justene shared with Brad a novel by Maya MacGregor she believes is a contender for upcoming awards:  a contemporary queer novel full of diversity, a suspicious death, and a spirit who helps solve the crime.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club showcased Art Kilmer and the two podcasts he hosts, The Bookshelf Odyssey and A Cozy Christmas.

Talkingbooksandstuff chatted with Canadian author Rick Mofina, a former journalist who's written more than 20 crime fiction thrillers and is a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist, and a two-time Shamus Award finalist.

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

Sony Pictures has landed rights to the upcoming Run, Rose, Run in a highly competitive situation. Run, Rose, Run is an adaptation of the novel by James Patterson and Dolly Parton also stars Parton in a leading role. The story is about a young woman who heads to Nashville to pursue her music-making dreams and is taken under the wing of a female musical icon. The sources of their heart-wrenching songs are secrets both have tried to hide.

Two-time Primetime Emmy nominee, David Oyelowo, will star opposite Kaley Cuoco in the Studiocanal and Picture Company thriller, Role Play. Amazon Prime Video is in final talks to take the US and several major offshore territories. Role Play centers around a married couple whose life turns upside down when secrets come out about each other’s pasts. Oyelowo will play Cuoco’s husband in the film, which is directed by Thomas Vincent from a screenplay by Seth Owen.

Captain America, The Purge, and Copshop lead, Frank Grillo, is set to star in the action movie, MR-9, which is set to film in the U.S. and Bangladesh. Writer-director Asif Akbar’s spy action-thriller is based on the popular Masud Rana novels written by late novelist, Qazi Anwar Hussain. Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Deadline reported that Grillo will play the nemesis of secret agent Rana, code named MR-9, of the Bangladesh Counter Intelligence Agency. The film is adapted from the Hussain's original first novel, Masud Rana: Dhonghsho Pahar (Demolition Hill). Hussain published 550 novels in the series, which is influenced by the James Bond franchise.

Sam Worthington, Burn Gorman, Jean Reno, and Jacob Batalon are set to join Kevin Hart in Lift for Netflix. They join the previously announced cast members, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Billy Magnussen, Úrsula Corberó, Yun Jee Kim, Viveik Kalra, and Paul Anderson. F. Gary Gray will direct, with Dan Kunka and Jeremy Doner penning the script. Hart will play a master thief who is wooed by his ex-girlfriend and the FBI to pull off an impossible heist with his international crew on a 777 flying from London to Zurich.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Lesley Manville is set to appear in Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Apple series, Disclaimer, joining previously announced series leads Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, as well as other cast members Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Hoyeon, and Louis Partridge. Based on the psychological thriller of the same name by Renée Knight, Blanchett will star as Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower (Kline) appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story she'd hoped was long buried in the past. Manville will play Nancy, a woman devastated by her young son’s untimely death. 

Juno Temple (Ted Lasso), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Atypical) are set as leads in the upcoming fifth installment of Fargo, FX’s acclaimed limited series created and executive produced by Noah Hawley. As usual, Hawley is not revealing much about the plot of the new season, which is the series’ most contemporary to date. Set in 2019, it answers two questions: When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours? Temple, Hamm and Leigh will play the central characters of Dot, Roy, and Lorraine, respectively. Previous seasons of Fargo have been headlined by Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor and Chris Rock, among others.

Lifetime has given a green light to Girl In Room 13, a movie inspired by actual events that will star Emmy winner Anne Heche, Larissa Dias, and Max Montesi. The film, directed by Elisabeth Rohm, explores the dark underworld of the $150-billion-dollar human trafficking industry. The project is part of the Broader Focus initiative and Stop Violence Against Women campaign, and is set to premiere this fall.

HBO Max has ordered a second season of Tokyo Vice. It stars Ken Watanabe and Ansel Elgort and is loosely inspired by American journalist Jake Adelstein’s nonfiction firsthand account of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police beat. The series captures Adelstein’s (Elgort) daily descent into the neon-soaked underbelly of Tokyo in the late ’90s, where nothing and no one is truly what or who they seem. Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Keller, Ella Rumpf, Hideaki Ito, Show Kasamatsu, and Tomohisa Yamashita also star in the series filmed in Tokyo.

Sam Waterston will continue as DA Jack McCoy on Law & Order's upcoming 22nd season on NBC. In doing so, Waterston is extending his Law & Order run to 18 seasons to become the longest-tenured cast member on the mothership series. Waterston and Anthony Anderson both initially signed one-year deals, but as previously announced, Anderson is not coming back for Season 22. The new installment of the series continues the classic bifurcated format and once again examines "The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders." Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy, and Odelya Halevi also star.

United States Of Al's Parker Young has been tapped as a lead opposite Michaela McManus in Criminal Nature, ABC’s drama pilot from Rashad Raisani, 20th Television, and A+E Studios. Written by Raisani, Criminal Nature (fka untitled National Parks project) is described as a "propulsive, soapy procedural set in the stunning world of America’s great outdoors." The story revolves around the agents who work for the ISB — an elite law enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in America's 81,000 square miles of protected land. Young will play Clay, Audrey’s (McManus) ex-boyfriend. As much of a cowboy as he is a cop, Clay been temporarily reassigned to Audrey’s team for the duration of their current investigation into the "Wild Flower Killer."

Prime Video has unveiled the full trailer for its upcoming eight-part series, The Terminal List, the highly-anticipated title starring Chris Pratt set to premiere Friday, July 1 on the streamer. Based on Jack Carr’s best-selling novel by the same name, The Terminal List follows James Reece (Pratt) after his entire platoon of Navy SEALs is ambushed during a high-stakes covert mission. As Reece returns home to his family with conflicting memories of the event, he begins to question his culpability. However, when new evidence begins to surface, Reece discovers dark forces are working against him, endangering his life and the lives of those that he loves the most.

Apple+ TV revealed the first trailer for Black Bird, a six-part series created by celebrated crime novelist, Dennis Lehane. When high school football hero, decorated policeman’s son, and convicted drug dealer Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton) is sentenced to 10 years in a minimum security prison, he is given the choice of a lifetime – enter a maximum-security prison for the criminally insane and befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser), or stay where he is and serve his full sentence with no possibility of parole. In addition to Egerton and Hauser, the series also stars Sepideh Moafi, Greg Kinnear, and the late Ray Liotta, in one of his final roles.

Gabriela Quezada has been promoted to series regular ahead of the premiere of the Walker prequel, Walker Independence. Starring Matt Barr and Katherine McNamara, Walker Independence is set in the late 1800s and follows an affluent Bostonian named Abby Walker (McNamara), whose husband is murdered in front of her while on their trek out West. Consumed by a need for vengeance, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), described as a "lovable rogue in search of a purpose." The pair soon find themselves in Independence, Texas, where they encounter a diverse and eclectic cohort of citizens hiding from their demons and chasing their dreams, all while becoming agents of change themselves in the small town.

Sofia Milos (CSI: Miami) is joining the mafia series, Astoria, from actor/writer, Theo Nicholas Pagones (Ten Days in the Valley). Astoria centers on Aristotle Antonopoulos (Pagones), the son of a Greek mob boss who is fighting for control of the drug and shipping cartel. Aristotle rises to the head of the family amidst a power onslaught from his drug-crazed, alienated sister, Chrysanthi (Milos), and the ruthless and deadly Albanian Mafia. The series is set in Queens, New York, and Athens, Greece.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

In honor of Pride month, the Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is featuring an LGBTQ+ author and main character with an excerpt from "The Player" by Joe Cosentino, read by actor Duncan Hodge.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club chatted with Maureen Jennings, who worked as a psychotherapist before turning her hand to writing. Her first series was set in Victorian-era Toronto and has been adapted for television, first as three movies of the week, and now The Murdoch Mysteries series

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed Scott Blackburn to talk about his debut crime fiction novel, It Dies With You, in which Hudson Miller reluctantly returns to his hometown of Flint Creek, North Carolina, after his father is shot and killed.

Vaseem Khan, author of the Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation series and Malabar House series, is interviewed by Robert Justice on the Crime Writers of Color podcast.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Philip's June book recommendation is a police procedural by Catherine Maiorisi, a title that passes the "Shreve Series Test" (stands on its own).

Wrong Place, Write Crime featured Jamie Mason discussing her suspense novels, secret talents, and philosophical approach to storytelling.

My Favorite Detective Stories spoke with Shannon Baker, the award-winning author of The Desert Behind Me and the Kate Fox series, along with the Nora Abbott mysteries and the Michaela Sanchez Southwest Crime Thrillers. She is the proud recipient of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers 2014 and 2017-18 Writer of the Year Award.

On Crime Time FM, Paul Burke reviewed May's new crime fiction releases.

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

WWE Superstar, Liv Morgan, will make her film debut in the darkly comic thriller, The Kill Room. She joins an ensemble that also includes the previously announced Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke, Debi Mazar, Larry Pine, Dree Hemingway, and Leah McSweeney. The film centers on hitman Reggie (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson), an art dealer (Thurman), and their money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld. Morgan will play an art purist who bemoans the vapidness of art dealers.

Ryan Phillippe (MacGruber), Mireille Enos (Hanna), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Taryn Manning (Orange Is the New Black) are the latest additions to Michelle Danner’s courtroom drama, Miranda’s Victim. They join an ensemble led by Abigail Breslin, Luke Wilson, Andy Garcia, and Donald Sutherland. The film will tell the true story of Trish Weir (Breslin), who in 1963 was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. Committed to putting her assailant in prison, Trish’s life is destroyed by America’s legal system as she triggers a law that transforms the nation. Her case notably results in the establishment of the Miranda rights afforded to criminal suspects taken in police custody, to ensure the admissibility of statements made during interrogation, as part of subsequent criminal proceedings. Phillippe will play ACLU lawyer Flynn, who successfully argues in front of the Supreme Court to get the landmark ruling for the Miranda Rights, with MacLachlan as Chief Justice Warren, who announces the ruling. Enos will portray Trish’s mother Zeola, who struggles to support her daughter while processing her own trauma, with Manning as Miranda’s wife Twila, whose testimony is pivotal in the case.

Erin Moriarty (The Boys), Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad), Dina Shihabi (Archive 81), and Ryan Corr (House of the Dragon) have signed on to star in Catching Dust, an upcoming Texas noir marking the feature debut of writer-director Stuart Gatt. The drama is set in the isolation of Texas’s Big Bend, where a lone trailer on an abandoned commune has become a hideout for Geena (Moriarty), at the behest of her criminal husband, Clyde (Courtney). Geena’s lust for life and desire for interaction with the outside world are quashed by Clyde’s insistence they remain hidden from the law and his former cohorts looking to settle old scores. Exhausted by Clyde’s controlling ways, Geena decides to leave, but then a trailer arrives carrying Amaya (Shihabi) and Andy (Corr), a couple from New York seeking a respite from the city. Ignoring the risks their presence will bring, Geena convinces Clyde to let them stay—a decision that will have dangerous consequences for them all.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

Fox is developing Felonious Monk, a one-hour drama based on William Kotzwinkle’s novel, from writer Michael Brandon Guercio (Treadstone) and Fox Entertainment. Felonious Monk is about a disgraced cop with anger issues-turned-monk who returns to his hometown to take care of his dead uncle’s outstanding business debts. But when he suspects foul play, he’s forced to abandon his serene monastery life in order to solve his uncle’s murder and other homicide cases.

Erin Young’s recently published crime thriller, The Fields, is being adapted for the small screen, with Kate Brooke attached as writer/showrunner (although no network home was yet announced). Young is the pseudonym of bestselling historical novelist, Robyn Young, and The Fields is her crime thriller debut. The story centers on Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, who investigates the death of a young woman found in an Iowa cornfield on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture. The murder becomes deeply personal when Riley discovers the victim was a childhood friend connected to a dark past she thought she’d left behind. The investigation grows more complicated as more victims are found, and Riley soon discovers implications far beyond her Midwest town.

Magnum P.I. is looking to join an elite group of popular broadcast series that overcame shocking cancellations to continue their runs. Deadline reported talks are underway for NBC and/or USA Network to potentially carry the series starring Jay Hernandez. One scenario would be for new episodes to air on NBC while USA would run previous seasons of the action drama, a reboot of the 1980s series that starred Tom Selleck. Immediately following CBS’s surprise May 12 cancellation of Magnum P.I. after four seasons, Universal Television, which co-produces the series with CBS Studios, sprang into action and started exploring potential new homes for the show.

MASTERPIECE Mystery! announced the 2022-2023 lineup of programming, which includes new seasons of returning popular shows and a few newcomers. Endeavour returns Sunday, June 19 with the first of three all-new mysteries featuring the cerebral, solitary hero, Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans); Grantchester Season 7 returns on July 10, with Tom Brittney as Reverend Will Davenport and Robson Green as his crime-solving partner, DI Geordie Keating; Season 2 of the darkly comic Scottish thriller Guilt starring Mark Bonar returns August 8; three all-new episodes of Van der Valk, with Marc Warren starring as maverick Dutch detective, Piet Van der Valk, returns September 25; and the Victorian London-set Miss Scarlet and The Duke returns for Season 2 on October 16 with Kate Phillips and Stuart Martin. The new shows are Magpie Murders, based on the book by Anthony Horowitz, and Annika, both of which premiere as a double-header on October 16. The first stars Lesley Manville and Timothy McMullan, while the latter features Nicola Walker as Scottish DI Annika Strandhed. PBS released a trailer for the lineup you can watch here.

U.K. broadcaster ITV has commissioned Six Four, a four-part crime thriller inspired by the bestselling novel by Hideo Yokoyama. Set primarily in Glasgow, the drama follows the O’Neills, police detective Chris and his wife, former undercover officer Michelle, whose teenage daughter goes missing. Meanwhile, the daughter of the justice minister is suddenly kidnapped, just as the minister is on the cusp of achieving an election victory. The cast is led by Kevin McKidd (Grey’s Anatomy) and Vinette Robinson (BIFA winner for Boiling Point) and also includes Richard Coyle (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore), James Cosmo (The Bay), Alex Ferns (The Irregulars), Iona Anderson (The Long Call), Andrew O’Neill, and Nilani Chetty.

Amanda Peet has joined the cast of Fatal Attraction, Paramount+’s series reimagining of the classic 1980s psychosexual thriller film. She joins previously announced series leads Lizzy Caplan and Joshua Jackson. Written by Alexandra Cunningham from a story she co-wrote with Kevin J. Hynes, the series explores the timeless themes of marriage and infidelity through the lens of modern attitudes towards strong women, personality disorders, and coercive control. Peet will play Beth Gallagher, a loyal wife, loving mother, and successful small business owner whose world unravels when her husband Dan’s (Jackson) indiscretion threatens to destroy their life together. Caplan plays Alex Forrest.

Miguel Gomez will not be returning to FBI: Most Wanted when the crime drama series is back for a fourth season next fall. The recent Season 3 finale provided a suitable ending to the arc of Gomez's Special Agent Ivan Ortiz, a former LAPD Gang Unit officer born and raised in Los Angeles who, after a stint with the FBI’s counter-terror unit in Washington, DC, joined the team that tracks down the country’s most wanted fugitives. In the finale, which aired last week, Ortiz returned to Los Angeles to take care of his ailing father. FBI: Most Wanted underwent a major casting change this season when original lead Julian McMahon exited and was succeeded by Dylan McDermott playing a new character. McDermott will be back for Season 4, joined by the rest of the remaining series regular cast members, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Roxy Sternberg, and Alexa Davalos.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Meet the Thriller Author shared a replay of an interview with John Hindmarsh, who passed away on Sunday, May 29th. John was the author of the Mark Midway futuristic spy series and the bestselling Jack Foster space opera series (with the fifth and final installment due out in September).

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, author Greg Levin talked about his dark novels (tinged with humor), including The Exit Man, Sick to Death, and In Wolves Clothing.

My Favorite Detective Stories welcomed Andy Straka, whose works include the Shamus Award-winning Frank Pavlicek series and his recently released Split City, the first in a new amateur sleuth series.

Writers Detective Bureau host, Detective Adam Richardson, discussed how 9-1-1 calls get dispatched over the police radio; what would happen if the morgue becomes unusable; and how detectives worked with the phone company on investigations in the 1950s and 60s.

Joachim B. Schmidt chatted with Crime Time FM's Paul Burke about his new novel, Kalmann, set in Iceland and translated from the German by Jamie Lee Searle.

On the Red Hot Chili Writers podcast, thriller writer Stephanie Merritt discussed her latest novel, Storm, while her alter ego S.J. Parris talked us through the life of her historical crime series protagonist, Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and cosmologist.

The All About Agatha podcast interviewed Carla Valentine, author of Murder Isn't Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie. Carla Valentine is a forensic pathologist and a "massive" Agatha Christie fan.

The latest episode of the Ellery Queen Magazine podcast featured Rob Osler reading his 2022 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award winning story “Analogue,” from the January/February 2021 issue.

On the latest Queer Writers of Crime, Dharma Kelleher, Bud Gundy, Anthony Bidulka, and Meredith Doench offered up some suggested books for readers.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah talked about mystery series you can dive into.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club also shared three books to get you started for summer reading.

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

Participant Pictures announced that Laurence Fishburne and Clifton Collins Jr. will star in the studio’s upcoming film, Frank & Louis. Directed by Petra Volpe from a screenplay she co-wrote with Esther Bernstorff, Frank & Louis follows a man serving a life sentence who takes a job caring for fellow prisoners who are aging and suffering from memory loss diseases. What starts as a self-serving mission for parole turns into an emotional and transformative relationship, offering a glimmer of redemption in an otherwise unforgiving place.

Saban Films has acquired U.S. rights to the Mel Gibson thriller, On The Line, in which the Oscar winner portrays a radio host confronted by a hostile caller. In the film, the anonymous caller threatens to kill the host’s entire family while he is on air. To save loved ones, the radio host has to play a survival game over the course of one night and the only way to win is to find out the identity of the criminal. The film is director, writer, and producer Romuald Boulanger’s second feature following his 2020 debut, Connectés. On The Line also stars Kevin Dillon, Enrique Arce, William Moseley, and Nadia Farès. The film is currently in post-production, with a planned November 2022 release.

J.K. Simmons, Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Jessica De Gouw, and Alice Lee have signed on to star alongside Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry in the Netflix thriller, Our Man from Jersey, from director Julian Farino. The film centers on Mike (Wahlberg), a down-to-earth construction worker from Jersey, who is quickly thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school ex-girlfriend Roxanne (Berry) recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission.

Oscar winner, Rita Moreno, is joining the cast of the latest Fast & Furious installment, Fast X, set to portray the grandmother to Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto in the film. Louis Letterier is set to direct, replacing Justin Lin, who departed the project over creative differences but remained on as a producer. Reacher breakout star, Alan Ritchson, also recently joined the cast. Moreno and Ritchson will be joined by fellow newbies Brie Larson and Jason Momoa, as well as franchise returnees Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, and Ludacris. Fast X will open in theaters May 19, 2023.

Utopia picked up North American rights to Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s Iranian thriller that has earned rave reviews after premiering at Cannes. Abbasi, who is an Iranian-Swedish director known for his previous Cannes winner, Border, has described Holy Spider as a "Persian Noir." The film follows female journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who travels to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a serial killer (Mehdi Bajestani) who believes he is doing the work of God, cleansing the streets of sinners by murdering sex workers. As the body count mounts, and Rahimi draws closer to exposing his crimes, the opportunity for justice grows harder to attain as the "Spider Killer" is embraced by many as a hero.

Abigail Breslin, Luke Wilson, Andy Garcia, and Donald Sutherland have signed on to star in the courtroom drama, Miranda’s Victim, from director Michelle Danner (The Runner), with production underway in New Jersey. The film, written by J. Craig Stiles and George Kolber, will tell the true story of Trish Weir (Breslin), who in 1963 was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. Committed to putting her assailant in prison, Trish’s life is destroyed by America’s legal system as she triggers a law that transforms the nation. Wilson will play Lawrence Turoff, the country prosecutor that convinces Trish to testify and helps her bring her aggressor to justice, with Garcia playing public defender Alvin Moore, who takes on Miranda’s case. Sutherland will protray Judge Wren, who convicts Miranda for the rape of Weir.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

The Silence of the Lambs star, Jodie Foster, is set to lead the fourth iteration of HBO’s True Detective franchise, True Detective: Night Country. The story centers on Detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro who are looking to solve the case of six men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station and vanish without a trace when the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska. The detective duo will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. True Detective, which was created and written by Nic Pizzolatto, ran for three seasons between 2014 and 2019. The third and most recent season, set in the Ozarks, aired on HBO in 2019 and starred Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff.

Tim Roth is replacing Ian McShane in the role of antagonist Ezra Shipman in Paramount+'s Australian crime drama series, Last King of the Cross, inspired by John Ibrahim's autobiography, Deadline reported, adding that McShane withdrew due to health concerns. The 10-part series is currently filming in and around Sydney and follows John Ibrahim and his rise from a poverty-stricken immigrant with no education, no money, and no prospects, to Australia’s most infamous nightclub mogul in Sydney’s Kings Cross, a mini-Atlantic City with every form of criminality on offer. Roth's Shipman is the most powerful and most feared man in Sydney, but now he is confronting his looming mortality. For all his power and material success, there's been no one to continue his legacy—until John Ibrahim.

After ten successful years, the critically acclaimed and beloved Endeavour is coming to a close, and the season currently filming in Oxford (Season 9) will be the last. The series was a prequel to the long-running series, Inspector Morse, and chronicled his coming of age. Fans in the US can look forward to Season 8 of Endeavour which airs Sundays, June 19- July 3 on Masterpiece PBS.

The Good Fight, a spinoff of The Good Wife, will also conclude, with its upcoming sixth season. The upcoming final season will see Diane (Baranski) feel like she’s going crazy as she struggles with an uneasy sense of déjà vu, with everything from Roe v. Wade, to voting rights, to Cold War aggression returning. Meanwhile, the lawyers of Reddick & Associates wonder if the violence that they see all around them points to an impending civil war, per a logline from the streaming service. CBS Studios president David Stapf praised executive producers Robert and Michelle King for pushing "creative boundaries" with the show.

Leonine Studios has taken worldwide rights to the German-Norwegian thriller series, The Seed (working title), which is set around the explosive takeover of a seed company and comes from Chameleon writer Christian Jeltsch. The Seed follows German detective Max (Heino Ferch) and Norwegian policewoman Thea (Bolsø Berdal), who set out to find Max’s missing nephew Victor (Jonathan Berlin) in Spitsbergen. It soon becomes apparent his disappearance may be connected to the takeover of a seed company that is causing controversy in Brussels. As they plunge deeper into webs of intrigue and political interests, they find their own lives in danger too. Rainer Bock (Better Call Saul), Seumas Sargent (Spy City), Erik Madsen (Vikings) and Friederike Becht (Labyrinth of Lies) round out the international cast.

Original S.W.A.T. cast member Lina Esco is exiting the CBS procedural after five seasons. Calling it "one of the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make," Esco said farewell to fans in a statement on social media. Her character Officer Christine "Chris" Alonso, who is openly bisexual, worked her final shift in Sunday night’s season finale. The storyline began to pave the way for Esco’s departure a few weeks ago when Alonso announced to her colleagues that she would be leaving S.W.A.T. in two weeks to take over the safe house for Mama Pina. S.W.A.T. was renewed for a sixth season in April.

Lex Medlin and Ariana Guerra are set as new series regulars, along with Jay Lee, who recurred last season as Chris Park, for the upcoming second season of CBS’s CSI: Vegas. Season 1 of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation sequel series opened a new chapter in Las Vegas – the city where it all began, introducing a serialized storytelling to the classic crime procedural drama. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the entire Crime Lab and release thousands of convicted killers back onto the neon-lit streets of Vegas, a brilliant new team of investigators led by Maxine Roby (Paula Newsome) enlisted the help of old friends, Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), to investigate a case centered around former colleague David Hodges (Wallace Langham). The first season also starred Matt Lauria, Mandeep Dhillon, and Mel Rodriguez.

Anthony Anderson will not be returning for Season 22 of NBC’s Law and Order. Anderson had only signed up to play Det. Kevin Bernard, a role he originated on the network from 2008-2010, for one season. After fulfilling his commitment, he’s set to move on. In his character’s final appearance in the Season 21 finale, Bernard recruited the help of SVU character, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), in the investigation of a police officer’s murder.

The Blacklist stars Amir Arison and Laura Sohn are departing the NBC series following Friday’s Season 9 finale. Arison will soon star as Amir in a Broadway adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel, The Kite Runner, while Sohn is leaving to pursue other projects. Arison has portrayed FBI Special Agent Aram Mojtabai since the thriller-drama’s inception and was promoted to a series regular role in Season 2 after playing a recurring character in the first season. He was one of the few actors to remain with the series throughout all nine seasons, alongside star James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff, Harry Lennix, and Hisham Tawfiq.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Edwin Hill stopped by It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club to discuss his new thriller, The Secrets We Share.

On Wrong Place, Write Crime, Frank Zafiro welcomed Jill Maser, to discuss her eclectic catalog, and also Jamie Lee Fry to talk about her psychological thrillers.

This week's guest on My Favorite Detective Stories was John Gaspard, author of the Eli Marks mystery series as well as four other stand-alone novels.

On Queer Writers of Crime, Brad Shreve, author of the Mitch O'Reilly Mystery Series, offered up a sample of his current work in progress.

The "Heads Together Special" of Crime Time FM featured host, Paul Burke, chatting about the 15th CrimeFest held in Bristol with CrimeFest organizer, Donna Moore; Shots Magazine's Ayo Onatade; authors Victoria Selman and Luke McCallin; and Financial Times book critic, Barry Forshaw.

THEATRE

Angela Lansbury (known to many fans for her iconic Murder She Wrote TV role) will receive the 2022 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. Lansbury made her Broadway debut in 1957 in Hotel Paradiso, followed by A Taste of Honey (1960), Anyone Can Whistle (1964), and Mame (1966), for which she won her first Tony. She also won Tonys for Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1974), and Sweeney Todd (1979).

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

A new adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, based on the Alan Moore graphic novels, is in the works at 20th Century Studios. The film will be written by Justin Haythe, who wrote the Jennifer Lawrence spy thriller, Red Sparrow. The new incarnation will be faithful to the original graphic novel, which involves famous fictional characters like Allan Quatermain, Mina Harker from Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Henry Jekyll, Fu Manchu, Captain Nemo, and Professor Cavor teaming up to thwart a deadly attack on London from the air in Victorian times. The original 2003 film was the last appearance of Sean Connery on the big screen.

A new Ocean’s Eleven film starring Margot Robbie is in "active development" at Warner Bros., with four-time Emmy winner Jay Roach looking to direct the project. Deadline reported that the film, scripted by Carrie Solomon, will be set in Europe in the 1960s, but further details with regard to its plot are being kept under wraps. Warner Bros. is eyeing a production start in spring of 2023.

Saban Films has taken global rights to the John Travolta and Stephen Dorff feature, American Metal. Writer and first-time feature director Nicholas Maggio’s film tells the story of a desperate and struggling family man who robs a pill mill. However, when the theft turns violent, he finds himself hunted by both the police and the Dixieland mafia. Shiloh Fernandez, Ashley Benson, and Kevin Dillon also star.

Dree Hemingway is the latest addition to the cast of Yale Entertainment’s darkly comedic thriller, The Kill Room, from writer Jonathan Jacobson and director Nicol Paone. She joins an ensemble that also includes Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Manganiello, Maya Hawke, Debi Mazar, and Larry Pine. The Kill Room centers on hitman, Reggie (Manganiello), his boss (Jackson), an art dealer (Thurman) and their money laundering scheme that accidentally turns the hitman into an overnight Avant-Garde sensation, forcing the dealer to play the art world against the underworld. Hemingway will portray Anika, the owner of a successful art gallery that rivals Thurman’s.

Malin Åkerman is set to star alongside Jack Donnelly, Wayne Gordon, Nicole Bartlett, Celine Arden, and Sam Cassidy in the action-thriller, Us Or Them. Directed by Tom Paton (Black Ops), the film is written by Nicole Bartlett from a story by Paton. The story follows childhood best friends Jude (Donnelly) and Andy (Gordon) who are enjoying a luxury holiday won on a mobile game app. While there, they agree to play another game despite the foreboding caveat that once the game begins, they must play to the end. As the game progresses, the penalties for disagreement escalate along with the prize money. The pair soon realize that failure to agree will have dire consequences not just for them, but also for their family members.

Netflix has greenlit A Day and a Half, a Swedish action film directed, written, and starring Chernobyl and Westworld 's Fares Fares. The story follows Artan (Alexej Manvelov) and Louise (Alma Pöysti), a divorced couple on an emotionally charged road trip where Artan holds Louise hostage in order to reunite with his daughter. The journey takes them through rural Sweden during a hot summer with police officer Lukas (Fares) on their heels. One Netflix executive called it "an intimate story about loss, lies, betrayals, love, prejudice and family."

Fate of the Furious alum, Scott Eastwood, will return to the Fast & Furious franchise as part of the cast of Fast X. He joins an ensemble that also includes Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, Alan Ritchson, Nathalie Emmanuel, Michael Rooker, Daniela Melchior, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Ludacris, and Cardi B, as previously announced. Eastwood will reprise his role as Little Nobody, the right-hand man of Kurt Russell’s Mr. Nobody, who helped Dominic Toretto (Diesel) track down cyberterrorist Cipher (Theron) in the franchise’s eighth film, Fate of the Furious, released in 2017. Whether Russell will also return to the franchise is not yet clear

Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro, along with Scott Eastwood and John Leguizamo. are set for the action movie, Tin Soldier, which begins filming next week in Greece. Tin Soldier tells the story of "The Bokushi" (Foxx), who preaches to hundreds of veterans who have been drawn to the promise of protection and purpose under him. Surrounded by his devout military-trained followers, he has built an impenetrable fortress and amassed an arsenal of weapons. After several failed infiltration attempts, the government – in the form of military operative Emmanuel Ashburn (De Niro) – recruits Nash Cavanaugh (Eastwood), an ex-special forces asset, who was once a disciple of The Bokushi. Nash agrees to use his vulnerable past and insider knowledge of the enigmatic leader to finally get revenge on the man who took everything from him, including the love of his life.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

HBO has renewed Barry for a fourth season. Production will begin in Los Angeles in June, with series star Bill Hader directing all eight episodes. Barry follows the misadventures of the titular character, a hired assassin who dreams of becoming an actor. The more he tries to move away from L.A.’s seedy underbelly, the deeper it consumes him — and affects everyone around him. In Season 3, Barry is fully committed to untangling himself from the murder business to follow his passion to act full time. But that proves to be a job in and of itself because he knows too much. The cast also includes Henry Winkler, Stephen Root, Michael Irby, Anthony Carrigan, and Sarah Goldberg.

Hulu has acquired the rights to the graphic novel, A Calculated Man, and is in the early stages of developing a series based on the crime story, which is set to be published in June. Peter Calloway, exec producer on HBO’s The Nevers and co-exec producer on Freeform’s Marvel series Cloak & Dagger and FX’s Legion, has signed to write and serve as showrunner on the project. The comic comes from writer Paul Tobin (Bunny Mask) and artist Alberto Albuquerque (The Amazing Spider-Man) and is a math-inspired crime series that follows Jack Beans, an accountant living in a witness protection program after betraying his former employers, the Pinafore crime family. After three years, Jack decides to reclaim his old life. What follows is a journey full of murder, mayhem and mathematics.

AMC has thrown its hat into the ring of video game adaptations, with a series based on the action-adventure game, Alan Wake. Published by Microsoft Studios, the game follows thriller novelist, Alan Wake, who seeks to uncover the truth behind his wife’s mysterious disappearance in the fictional town of Bright Falls, Washington. While investigating, Alan finds key events from his latest work coming to life.

James D’Arcy is set to star alongside Noomi Rapace and Jonathan Banks in Constellation, an eight-episode conspiracy-based psychological thriller drama series at Apple TV+. Oscar-nominated Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) and Joseph Cedar (Footnote) are set as directors on the series, joining previously announced director/EP Michelle MacLaren. Created and written by Peter Harness (The War of the Worlds), Constellation stars Rapace as Jo, a woman who returns to Earth after a disaster in space — only to discover that key pieces of her life seem to be missing. The action-packed space adventure is an exploration of the dark edges of human psychology, one woman’s desperate quest to expose the truth about the hidden history of space travel, and her efforts to recover all that she has lost.

Lupita Nyong’o has exited Lady In The Lake, Apple TV+’s limited series adaptation of Laura Lippman’s book. Nyong’o was to star and executive produce alongside Natalie Portman, who remains in the series. The project is currently in production and a search is underway for a new actress to take over her role. The limited series takes place in '60s Baltimore, where an unsolved murder pushes housewife and mother, Maddie Schwartz (Portman), to reinvent her life as an investigative journalist. That decision sets her on a collision course with Cleo Sherwood, a hard-working woman juggling motherhood, many jobs, and a passionate commitment to advancing Baltimore’s Black progressive agenda.

Maahra Hill, who played the title role in the OWN series, Delilah, has been tapped as the female lead opposite Jesse L. Martin in NBC’s drama pilot, The Irrational. Written by Arika Mittman, The Irrational is based on bestselling author Dan Ariely’s book, Predictably Irrational. The show follows Alec Baker (Martin), a world-renowned professor of behavioral science, who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, law enforcement, and corporations with his unique and unexpected approach to understanding human behavior.
 

Amazon Prime Video’s Alan Ritchson-fronted series, Reacher, will see a familiar face as Maria Sten returns for the second season, reprising her role of Frances Neagley. Here’s the logline for Season 2, which will be based on Bad Luck and Trouble, the 11th book in Lee Child’s Reacher series: "When the members of Reacher’s old military unit start turning up dead, he has just one thing on his mind—revenge." 

Last week, Fox announced the bulk of its programming slate for 2022-23 but not a fall schedule, although the network indicated it would soon be forthcoming. The lineup will include the return of 9-1-1 Lone Star and the mob drama, The Cleaning Lady; the new crime anthology series Accused, from Homeland and 24 producers, Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, and House creator, David Shore; and also Alert, the character-driven police procedural about the LAMPU, the Los Angeles Police Department’s missing person’s unit.

Reba McEntire has joined Big Sky, David E. Kelley’s ABC drama, as a series regular for the upcoming third season. McEntire will play Sunny Brick, the mercurial matriarch of the Brick Family, a successful backcountry outfitter with a secret history of missing customers. McEntire will join new series regular cast members Jensen Ackles, who guest-stars in the upcoming Season 2 finale and will continue his role as Beau Arlen in Season 3, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who recurred as Tonya in Season 2 and was promoted to series regular for the upcoming season. Based on the books by C.J. Box,  Big Sky follows private detective Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and her former partner, Undersheriff Jenny Hoyt (Katheryn Winnick), as they investigate local crimes, taking on drug syndicates, notorious kidnappers, crime dynasties, and more along the way.

Yasha Jackson is set as a lead opposite Michaela McManus in ABC’s national parks drama pilot from Rashad Raisani and A+E Studios. Written and executive produced by Raisani, the as-yet-untitled drama revolves around the tangled, messy lives of the agents who work for the ISB — an elite law-enforcement unit responsible for solving all serious crimes that occur in our country’s 81,000 square miles of protected land. Jackson will play Tiffany, a brassy, funny Park Service Agent and helicopter pilot. She's also fellow Park Service Agent Audrey’s (McManus) close friend.

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

A new Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast is up featuring the mystery short story, "Death on the Rocks," written by Guy Belleranti and read by actor Larry Mattox.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club celebrated their patrons by letting them run the show and tell us about their favorite books.

On Read or Dead, Katie and Nusrah discussed mysteries featuring some kind of time or inter-dimensional travel.

Meet the Thriller Author welcomed A.M. Adair, an active duty Chief Warrant Officer in the United States Navy and author of action-packed spy/military thrillers. Her latest novel, Shadow War, was published in March.

Queer Writers of Crime's Laury recommended the first novel in a grim psychological series by Val McDermid.

Wrong Place Write Crime chatted with Neely Tucker about his Sully Carter novels and his career as a journalist.

My Favorite Detective Stories interviewed Brooklyn-born dancer and author, Lori Robbins, whose debut novel, Lesson Plan for Murder: A Master Class Mystery, won the Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery and was a finalist in the Readers’ Choice and Indie Book Awards.

Crime Time FM welcomed authors Caz Frear and William Shaw to discuss procedurals, the rise of the armchair detective, and riding in Peter James's police car.

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

Cinedigm has acquired North American rights to the CIA thriller, MK Ultra, starring Anson Mount, Jaime Ray Newman, and Jason Patric, scheduling it for release in theaters and on VOD this fall. The film is inspired by the true story of the illegal drug experimentation program, Project MKUltra, which the CIA established during the early 1960s. That program was a means of developing procedures and using drugs like LSD to weaken individuals in interrogations, forcing confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture. The film will follow the brilliant psychiatrist Ford Strauss (Mount), who finds his professional and ethical boundaries tested as he is recruited to run a subset of the program at a rural Mississippi mental hospital.

Neon, the Oscar-winning studio behind Parasite, has acquired U.S. rights to Mothers’ Instinct, a psychological thriller starring Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway. The project is a remake of the 2018 critically acclaimed Belgian film, Duelles, by director Olivier Masset-Depasse, who will also direct the English-language remake of his film. As the official logline reads, "Set in the early '60s, best friends and neighbors Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway) both live an idyllic traditional lifestyle with manicured lawns, successful husbands, and sons of the same age. Life’s perfect harmony is suddenly shattered after a tragic accident. Guilt, suspicion and paranoia combine to unravel their sisterly bond and a psychological battle of wills begins as the maternal instinct reveals its darker side."

Ukrainian filmmaker Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi wrote and will direct the feature adaptation of John Valliant’s book, The Tiger, in which Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award-winner Alexander Skarsgård will star alongside Dane DeHaan. Set in snowy far east Russia in the late 90s, the feature follows a group of men — referred to as the Tiger Team — who work to protect endangered tigers from poachers and logging operations. The story follows Vanzin (Skarsgård), the Team’s leader whose sense of duty is tested when he’s charged with hunting down and exterminating a tiger that killed a poacher in self-defense. DeHaan will portray Kanchuga, a young environmental scientist and newest member of the Team.

Mads Mikkelsen will star in the new action-thriller, The Black Kaiser, based on the Dark Horse graphic novel series by Victor Santos. In the story, Mikkelsen will play The Black Kaiser, the world’s most lethal hitman, who uncovers a deadly conspiracy protecting a powerful syndicate of killers and becomes their number one target.

Ralph Fiennes has signed up to lead the conspiracy thriller, Conclave, with John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini also joining the cast. The film, written by Peter Straughan and based on Robert Harris’s novel of the same name, will be directed by Edward Berger. The story is set following the death of the Pope, when the reluctant Cardinal Lomeli is tasked with overseeing the group of Cardinals from across the globe responsible for selecting a new leader for the Church. But as the political machinations inside the Vatican intensify, he realizes that the departed Pope had kept a secret from them that he must uncover before a new Pope is chosen.

Liam Neeson is set to star in the thriller, Thug, reuniting with his Cold Pursuit director, Hans Petter Moland. Thug revolves around an aging San Pedro gangster (Neeson) who attempts to reconnect with his children and rectify the mistakes in his past. But the criminal underworld won’t loosen its grip willingly. Tony Gayton (Hells on Wheels) wrote the screenplay. 

Better Call Saul actress, Kerry Condon, is joining Liam Neeson and Ciarán Hinds in the thriller, In The Land Of Saints And Sinners. Set in a remote Irish village, Neeson will play a newly retired assassin who finds himself drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse with a trio of vengeful terrorists. The screenplay comes from Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane, with revisions by Matthew Feitshans.

Daisy Ridley and Shazad Latif are set to star in Magpie, a contemporary noir thriller based on an original idea from Ridley that was written by Tom Bateman. Award-winning British theater talent Sam Yates will make his feature directorial debut. The film follows a couple whose lives are thrown into disarray when their daughter is cast opposite a controversial major star. 

Luis Gnecco, Claudia Ramírez, and Juan Manuel Bernal will lead the upcoming thriller, Confessions. The film, from award-winning writer-director Carlos Carrera, sees a young child from an affluent Mexico City family go missing. At night, hours after the disappearance, a man arrives at the family home to discuss the child’s return. The terms are not monetary, rather a confession from one family member that has committed a terrible act. One by one, confession by confession, the intruder exposes each family member—unveiling their deepest, shocking secrets.

Reacher breakout star, Alan Ritchson, is in talks to join Fast X, the 10th installment of the "Fast and Furious" franchise, which will open in theaters May 19, 2023. Vin Diesel and the core cast are returning alongside franchise newcomers Jason Momoa and Brie Larson. Justin Lin and Dan Mazeau co-wrote the script. Reacher, based on the books and character by Lee Child, was renewed for a second season, and Amazon recently inked Ritchson to a three-picture deal.

FBI: Most Wanted actor, Kellan Lutz, has been set to star in the thriller, Palido. Lutz will play an attorney with a military past who hunts down the gang that killed his wife and brother and took his daughter. Javier Reyna (Regionrat) is directing from his original screenplay. The crime thriller is due to start principal photography on July 11 in the state of Washington, with additional casting underway.

Glen Powell and Adria Arjona have signed on to star in the upcoming action-comedy, Hitman, from Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater (Boyhood). Written by Linklater and Powell, the film is based on a true story and has Powell starring as the most sought-after, albeit least trustworthy hitman in Houston. If you pay him to rub out a cheating spouse or a sadistic boss, you’d better watch out: he works for the cops. When he breaks protocol to help a desperate woman (Arjona) trying to get away from an abusive boyfriend, he finds himself living the life of one of his false personas, falling for the woman and flirting with becoming a criminal himself.

TELEVISION/STREAMING SERVICES

It's upfront season again, when the television networks make decisions on series cancellations and renewals and also which pilots will move forward. ABC has ordered The Rookie spinoff, The Rookie: Feds, to series, with Niecy Nash-Betts starring as Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy. The mysteries of Big Sky will also continue at ABC, which has renewed the David E. Kelly series for season three. The series stars Kylie Bunbury and Katheryn Winnick, with Jensen Ackles, who guest starred in the season two finale, joining the cast as a series regular. Not going forward is ABC's L.A. Law sequel, which saw Blair Underwood reprising his role as attorney Jonathan Rollins, but the finished pilot is being shopped to other outlets.

In the already announced new ABC series, Will Trent, Sonja Sohn has been set as a lead opposite Ramón Rodríguez. 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. Sohn will play Amanda, the head of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Will’s (Rodriguez) boss.

CBS’s program announcements included news that the  FBI franchise will be continuing to solve crimes for the next few years after the network handed all three shows a two-season pick up. FBI will return for its fifth and sixth seasons; FBI: Most Wanted comes back for a fourth and fifth; and FBI: International gets picked up for its second and third seasons. It is the network’s latest bumper renewal order, having given The Equalizer a two-season pickup last week. CBS has also given series orders to three of its five drama pilots including Fire Country about an ex-con turned firefighter; the police procedural East New York, headlined by Amanda Warren and Jimmy Smits; and the mother-son legal drama, So Help Me Todd, starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin.

It took an extra day but True Lies was also officially picked up by CBS to series. The project is a reboot of James Cameron’s hit 1994 action comedy movie and will star Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga in the roles made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Magnum PI wasn't as lucky, with CBS announcing the show starring Jay Hernandez will end after its current fourth season. Aside from Bull, which announced in January that its current sixth season will be its last, Magnum P.I. is the most established CBS series to be canceled this season. As a Top 25 show in total viewers, it also may also be the most watched broadcast series to get the axe this upfront season. As Deadline noted, as a reboot of the 1980s drama, which starred Tom Selleck, the new Magnum P.I. was a rare broadcast drama with a Latino lead.

Over at NBC, Law & Order has been renewed for Season 22 and Law & Order: Organized Crime for Season 3. The original "mothership" series returned from a 12-year-hiatus for its 21st season this year, with Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson reprising their roles as D.A. Jack McCoy and Detective Kevin Bernard, respectively. The revived series also stars Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy, and Odelya Halevi. NBC previously renewed Law & Order: SVU as part of a three-year renewal for what will be its 24th season, extending its record as the longest-running primetime live-action series of all time, and making it three-for-three for the Dick Wolf series. 
 

The CW network also announced its fall season, which includes the Walker origin story, Walker: Independence. Starring Matt Barr and Katherine McNamara, the prequel is set in the late 1800s and follows Abby Walker (McNamara), an affluent Bostonian whose husband is murdered before her eyes while on their journey out West. On her quest for revenge, Abby crosses paths with Hoyt Rawlins (Barr), a lovable rogue in search of purpose. Abby and Hoyt’s journey takes them to Independence, Texas, where they encounter diverse, eclectic residents running from their own troubled pasts and chasing their dreams, all while becoming agents of change themselves in the small town.

Emmy winner Archie Panjabi is set to star opposite Idris Elba in the Apple thriller series, Hijack. Told in real time, the seven-part Hijack follows the journey of a hijacked plane as it makes its way to London over a seven hour flight, and authorities on the ground scramble for answers. Elba plays Sam Nelson, an accomplished negotiator in the business world who needs to step up and use all his guile to try to save the lives of the passengers. Panjabi portrays Zahra Gahfoor, a counter terrorism officer who is on the ground when the plane is hijacked and becomes part of the investigation. 

The upcoming HBO and Channel 4 drama, Get Millie Black, has set Tamara Lawrance as the lead. With shooting beginning this week in Jamaica, the six-part detective drama has also rounded out its cast with Game of Thrones star Joe Dempsie joining and Tanya Hamilton set to direct. Lawrance will play ex-Scotland Yard detective Millie Black, who returns to Kingston to work missing persons cases for the Jamaican Police Force and soon finds herself on a quest to save a sister who won’t be saved, to find a boy who can’t be found, and to solve a case that will blow her world apart and prove almost as tough to crack as she is.

BBC One’s hugely popular drama, Silent Witness, celebrates its 25th series with the dramatic return of Amanda Burton as Sam Ryan. The longest-running crime drama currently airing on TV returns with six new episodes, opening in Liverpool with an assassination attempt and Sam Ryan calling on the Lyell team with a plea for help seventeen years after leaving the Lyell. Sam seeks to usher in democratic health care, but the shooting of the Health Secretary and Sam’s husband pulls Dr. Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), Jack Hodgson (David Caves), and Simone Tyler (Genesis Lynea) into a world of duplicity, intrigue, and betrayal.

Left Bank Pictures and Netflix have set Sean Teale as the male lead in their new Spain-set series Palomino (working title). Teale joins lead Evin Ahmad in the eight-part thriller series set in the suburbs of Barcelona. Ahmad plays British teacher, Erin Carter, who is caught up in a brutal supermarket robbery and finds her life threatening to unravel as one of the robbers claims to recognize her. Teale will play Erin’s Spanish husband, Jordi, who works as a nurse at the local hospital. As the series progresses, Jordi starts to question his past, as well as his marriage.

Australian author, Dervla McTiernan, whose last two novels were international bestsellers, has optioned The Murder Rule, a thriller novel being published this month, to FX. The book focuses on an idealistic law student, who is an outsider to her peers. Working with her elite campus’s prestigious Innocence Project represents the high point of everything she’s sacrificed for, but in a twisted mother/daughter story, she soon reveals that underneath her do-gooder image lie rules pounded into her by mom—including "make them pay." 

PODCASTS/VIDEO/RADIO/AUDIO

Speaking of Mysteries welcomed P. David Ebersole to discuss his debut novel, 99 Miles From L.A., which was inspired by the song of the same title written by Hal David and Albert Hammond—and sung by everyone from Hammond to Julio Iglesias to Art Garfunkel, although it’s Johnny Mathis’s take that inspired Ebersole and consequently the novel.

On Spybrary, Jeff Quest welcomed Otto Penzler to share stories from his many years of collecting books and meeting spy fiction authors. They discussed stories about Eric Ambler, Charles McCarry, John le Carré, and many more, as well as Penzler's meeting with Len Deighton, how Ross Thomas nearly lost out on a million dollars, and a shocking revelation about a piece by Quiller writer Adam Hall.

Wrong Place, Write Crime host, Franz Zafiro, chatted with Emmeline Duncan about her Portland-based cozies.

My Favorite Detective Stories host, John Hoda, spoke with Edwin Hill, author of the critically-acclaimed Hester Thursby mystery series, the first of which, Little Comfort, was an Agatha Award finalist, a selection of the Mysterious Press First Mystery Club, and a Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selection. 

Queer Writers of Crime discussed the news that when ReQueered Tales obtained the rights to Grant Michael's Stan Kraychik series, they never expected to come upon an unpublished 7th novel in the series. That novel, Do-Si-Do with Death, will be published later this month.

Nicola Upson chatted with Paul Burke on Crime Time FM about her novel, Dear Little Corpses; Josephine Tey and Margery Allingham; WWII and Golden Age crime; the Hitchcocks and Gielguds; not so cozy emotions; and the fun of writing.

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.

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.