Friday, April 25, 2025

2025 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award Longlist

2025 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award Longlist
. W
inner will be announced  July 17 at the opening night of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. What a great list. Get reading! Anyone can vote to establish the shortlist. Go here to cat your ballot (and check out the covers). Congratulations to all!

The Cracked Mirror, by Chris Brookmyre (Sphere)
Our Holiday, by Louise Candlish (HQ)
A Stranger in the Family, by Jane Casey (Hemlock Press)
The Mercy Chair, by M.W. Craven (Constable)
The Wrong Sister, by Claire Douglas (Michael Joseph)
The Last Word, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
Estella’s Revenge, by Barbara Havelocke (Hera)
Redemption, by Jack Jordan (Simon & Schuster UK)
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby, by Ellery Lloyd (Pan)
Finding Sophie, by Imran Mahmood (Raven)
The Woman on the Ledge, by Ruth Mancini (Century)
The Kill List, by Nadine Matheson (HQ)
Hunted, by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)
Blood Like Mine, by Stuart Neville (Simon & Schuster UK)
To Die in June, by Alan Parks (Canongate)
Deadly Animals, by Marie Tierney (Zaffre)
The Last Murder at the End of the World, by Stuart Turton (Raven)
All the Colours of the Dark, by Chris Whitaker (Orion)

Thursday, April 24, 2025

GRANTCHESTER, SEASON 10 Info & Trailer

Grantchester returns to MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS with Season 10! on Sunday, June 15 at 9/8c. 

In the new episodes, Alphy (Rishi Nair) has really found a home in Grantchester. In Geordie (Robson Green), he’s found a best friend and his intellectual equal. Love proves more elusive, until a case throws him in the path of a romance. But before he can let anyone else in, he must confront truths about himself. Geordie, meanwhile, wrestles with his expectations for his own son and Cathy takes steps to better her career with the help of Mrs. Chapman.
 
Season 10 of Grantchester premieres on Sunday, June 15 at 9/8c
. The eight-episode season will also be available to stream on the PBS appPBS.org, and with PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video.

How the Mystery of a Missing Father Inspired a Debut Novel: Guest Post by A.C. Adams

My wife and creative partner, Christina Adams, and I met in San Diego in our early twenties. I was the composer and book writer for an original rock opera, An Eye In Each Head, which was being staged locally, and she had just returned from touring India and Europe as the lead singer of Vrindavan, a world music ensemble. Our artistic and personal connection was instantaneous, and we wrote dozens of songs and stories before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue careers in the entertainment industry. After years of writing, producing, and developing projects for television, film, and theatre, we decided to write our debut novel, inspired by the true story of Christina’s family. 

As long-time co-writers in various mediums, we are frequently asked about our creative process and how a married couple can work together daily without killing each other. Our answer is simple: it’s easy when you find the right person and a living hell if you don’t. We are fortunate to enjoy working and creating together, sharing a seamless partnership based on respect and collaboration rather than competition. The quality of the storytelling is our priority. If one of us likes a particular plot point or line of dialogue and the other doesn’t, we continue discussing it until we reach a new solution that satisfies both of us. Since we can practically read each other’s minds and have developed a singular voice as a writing team, we’ve adopted the nom de plume, A.C. Adams, for Chasing Shadows and our future novels. 

Chasing Shadows required more research and a deeper collaboration than our previous projects. The story was inspired by the quest to find Christina’s father, who vanished shortly before we met, leaving a chilling message stating he had a new life and must never see her or her siblings again. Christina’s world was turned upside down. He was a brilliant university professor and a loving parent whom she idolized. How could he justify such cruel and unfathomable behavior? She needed to find out, and I was committed to the challenge, so we embarked on an international search to uncover his secrets. The process took years, but what we learned about his past unraveled everything she thought she knew about her family history. For years, her father had led a covert life as a Catholic priest and a member of an elusive, powerful society that operates in the shadows of world affairs. Although we interviewed many of his friends and colleagues, the details of his extraordinary life remained a Gordian knot that was impossible to untangle. Her estranged mother also had a hidden past of trauma and deceit, and one of the best outcomes of the journey was their reconciliation. 

When we realized our search had reached an impasse and there were crucial details about Christina’s father we couldn’t verify, we decided to write a novel inspired by true events. We would change the names and locations in the novel to protect our sources while preserving many incidents from his life and our search. Our goal was to remain true to his essence while revealing the dramatic truth of the story. 

It was time to outline, and after months of effort, we discovered a structure that perfectly suited the narrative, incorporating three points of view to tell a multi-generational family drama spanning seventy years across three countries and various locations. Sixty-two taut chapters provided the fast pacing we desired, and now that we had the framework, it was time to flesh it out. As usual, we divided the work in half and started writing, with Christina beginning with Chapter One and I with Chapter Thirty-One. 

After completing the first draft, we read it aloud and took detailed notes. Then, we revised our chapters and read the book aloud again, creating a new set of notes. Next, we exchanged chapters—I revised the first half while Christina worked on the second half. We repeated this process several times until we were ready to share it with a few trusted colleagues who read the manuscript and provided invaluable feedback. 

Writing our first novel was liberating, allowing us to explore the story and characters with greater depth and detail than was possible in a screenplay. We’re hooked and eagerly anticipate writing many more. However, we are not quite finished with Chasing Shadows; the characters still have more of their story to share, and we envision a sequel. 

***
A.C. Adams is the nom de plume of co-authors Anthony Leigh Adams and Christina Adams. They have written and produced film and television projects for studios including Disney, ABC, CBS, NBC, and OWN. Their production company, Adams Entertainment, is based in La Jolla, California. For more information about Chasing Shadows and A.C. Adams’s other projects, visit adamsentertainment.com

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Cartoon of the Day: Nevermore

 

Cabin Crimes: Guest Post by Mike Cobb

What is it about a cabin in the woods that practically screams menace?
Is it the way the trees press in too close? Is it how the silence seems to stretch for miles? Maybe it’s just the remoteness—a place where help won’t come, and secrets don’t echo. It’s the perfect backdrop for a crime, and the perfect crucible for the characters who survive it. It’s also the kind of book that keeps me turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning. 

When I began writing Muzzle the Black Dog, I knew the setting had to be remote, raw, and unforgiving. The cabin in my novel isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a character in itself. It isolates, it exposes, and it becomes a mirror for the unraveling mind of my protagonist, Jack Pate. After a mysterious stranger appears at Jack’s isolated cabin door, his life is forever changed. The stranger’s cryptic message sets off a chain of events that take Jack on a harrowing journey to uncover the true meaning of his own existence, leading to self-discovery and redemption. 

Turns out, I’m not the only one drawn to these shadowy hideaways. Below, I’ve gathered some of my favorite crime novels where cabins and woodland retreats become grounds for murder, mystery, and survival. 

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware 
A bachelorette party gone awry in a forest retreat in the English countryside. Ware is a master of psychological tension, and here she uses the isolation to full effect. Secrets, betrayal, and a haunting sense of déjà vu. 

One by One by Ruth Ware 
A corporate retreat in a luxurious ski chalet. Snowed in, of course. What possibly could go wrong? A lot, as it turns out. The staff starts dying, and paranoia reigns. Ware has proven again that she knows how to weave a compelling mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. 

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley 
Seven friends decide to spend New Year's Eve at a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands. Like the characters in One by One, they become snowbound. By the end, one ends up dead, indelibly changing all their lives. Foley deftly conveys a chilly, claustrophobic mood that delivers a tightly wound tension. 

The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay 
Imagine a secluded cabin in New Hampshire. Imagine an idyllic family vacation. Idyllic, that is, until three strangers invade the cabin, forcing seven-year-old Wen and her parents to make impossible choices. Tremblay plays on primal fears—strangers at the door, no way out, and desperation. 

An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena 
What is it about snowstorms? I guess they just fit naturally with menacing cabins in the woods. In Lapena’s mystery, a group of friends get together at a Catskills lodge. A blizzard snows them in. Then one of the guests is found dead. At first, they think it’s an accident. But when other guests start dying one by one, the survivors begin to suspect the killer is among them. 

No Exit by Taylor Adams 
Okay, so this one isn’t about a cabin in the wood, but I’ve included it because it’s still a “trapped in the wilderness” story. And there’s a blizzard again! A young woman is desperate to outwit a psychopath and save a kidnapped young girl locked in a van at a snowed-in rest stop. 

So, if you’re itching for a good, scary “cabin in the woods” story, or close to it, one of these books may be just what you’re looking for. 
***

Mike Cobb’s body of literary work includes both fiction and nonfiction. He is the author of four published novels, Dead Beckoning, The Devil You Knew, its sequel You Will Know Me by My Deeds, and Muzzle the Black Dog. A native of Atlanta, Mike splits his time between Midtown Atlanta and Blue Ridge, Georgia.