Val McDermid's Karen Pirie coming to the small screen!

Great news!

Val McDermid's Karen Pirie is being turned into a TV series. The first 3 feature-length episodes are adapted from the first novel in the 6 book series, The Distant Echo. The show will star Lauren Lyle as Karen Pirie. The production company is World Productions that has produced such great shows as Line of Duty and Bodyguard. Val McDermid is among the co-producers, as is Emer Kenny who adapted the novel's text for television and plays River Wilde, Karen's friend, in the show.  

Can't wait! The show will be aired in September in the UK, and I'll let you know when and if it will be shown in the U.S. And, hopefully some of the other books will be turned into a series.

In the meantime, if you haven't read the Karen Pirie series, get on it. You'll love these books. Great sense of place, terrific characters, superb writing, well structured mysteries. Val McDermid is the best! 

ANNIKA scheduled for Second Season!

The wonderful detective series Annika has been scheduled for a second season. The second series will see the return of Nicola Walker as DI Annika Strandhed, Jamie Sives as DS Michael McAndrews, Katie Leung as DC Blair Ferguson and Ukweli Roach as DS Tyrone Clarke. Annika’s first series will have its broadcast premiere on MASTERPIECE in the USA on October 16th, although PBS Passport members will have already had the opportunity to watch the entire first season. It's easy to be a PBS Passport member. Just donate $60+ to your local PBS station. 

Nicola Walker said about the series: “We are all looking forward to fighting crime on sea and land with the MHU for a second series and there are secrets closer to home for Annika that will have to be faced. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!” 

Annika follows the sharp, witty and enigmatic DI Annika Strandhed (Walker), as she leads the specialist Marine Homicide Unit (MHU) that is tasked with investigating the unexplained, brutal, and seemingly unfathomable murders that wash up in the waterways of Scotland. Through the series, Annika makes the audience her confidante by breaking the fourth wall and sharing her wry observations on the case and her life, as she manages her brilliant yet unconventional team, and her equally brilliant yet complex teenage daughter. 

MASTERPIECE executive producer Susanne Simpson says, “Nicola Walker absolutely owns the role of Annika, who comes across as smart, eccentric, and funny. She leads an extraordinary cast of characters who make this show unique.” MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by GBH Boston. 

The new series will see Annika and her MHU team uncover bodies in Edinburgh, Glasgow and as far as the Hebridean island of Jura, keeping in high literary company with Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell and Walter Scott to help solve the cases. Nick Walker, writer/producer, is again at the helm, so this series promises more twisty crimes and grisly reveals while delving into our exciting serial hooks from the first series. 

Can't wait!

Cartoon of the Day: Dogs