WILL TRENT: New TV series based on Karin Slaughter's mysteries

I caught the first episode of Will Trent last night. It's a new ABC crime drama based on Karin Slaughter’s bestselling mystery series. I liked it. Good acting, nice plot, interesting back story (we're thrown right into it), and good police procedure. I especially liked the quirky main characters. It may not be how I envisaged Karin Slaughter's characters, but it works as a TV series, nonetheless. 

The series follows Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) who 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, Will Trent has the highest clearance rate in the GBI. 

Ramón Rodríguez stars as the special agent in this procedural set in Georgia. Also starring: Erika Christensen, Iantha Richardson, Jake McLaughlin, and Sonja Sohn. 

The new series premiered Tuesday, January 3, at 10:00 p.m. ET on ABC. It aired on Hulu January 4. Will Trent episode 2, “I’m a Pretty Observant Guy,” will premiere January 10, at the same time, with new episodes following every Tuesday after that (and Hulu next day).

Have you seen it? What do you think?

CWA Daggers

I was so excited to post that Michael Robotham won the Gold Dagger for Life or Death that I neglected to list the winners of the other Daggers. The awards were given out this evening in London. Congratulations to all!

CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger: Cop Town by Karin Slaughter

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger: Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent Mysteries - TV Movies

Karin Slaughter's Will Trent Mysteries will be adapted for TV Movies

Deadline reports that Yellow Bird, which turned Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy into three hit Swedish films that began with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, is expanding its scope from Scandinavian crime films to international properties. It acquired rights to Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent book series.

Yellow Bird will produce three television films based on the book series. They begin with Triptych, the first novel in the series of books featuring Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent, his partner Faith Mitchell and their legendary boss Amanda Wagner. Slaughter will write the first script. The films will shoot on location in Atlanta.

Hat tip Omnimystery News

Mystery Bytes: Crime Fiction TV News

Deadline reports that Entertainment One and Piller/Segan/Shepherd, partners on the Syfy series Haven, are re-teaming for another drama series project based on a well known literary properly. The two companies have acquired the TV rights to best-selling author Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series of 6 books featuring the popular character Sara Linton. The project will go into development immediately, with Slaughter co-writing the pilot script with Piller/Segan/Shepherd principal Scott Shepherd.

Set in the fictional Grant County in Georgia, the novels follows Sara Linton, town pediatrician and coroner, and her ex-husband, town police chief Jeffrey Tolliver. The Grant County series include Blindsighted, Kisscut, A Faint Cold Fear, Indelible, Faithless and Beyond Reach.

Hat Tip: ShelfAwareness

Fun Mystery Author Contests: Cupcakes, Happily Ever After

I came across two contests offered by Mystery Authors this week that are both a bit whimical and fun, so I thought I'd post them here.

Karin Slaughter has set up a Cupcake Contest! and, yes, it belongs here, probably as well as on DyingforChocolate.com. Here's the Deal. Karin Slaughter, author of Broken, and lover of The Whimsical Bakehouse and all things cake has set up a Cupcake Contest. You can follow instructions or create cupcakes in the Style of Slaughter or come up with something completely on your own. All details HERE.

With June just around the corner and thoughts of marriage on your mind--you, your daughter, your mother?, Elaine Viets has initiated the Elaine Viets Happily Ever After Contest. Besides being a bestselling mystery author, she is also an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church. She will marry a couple anywhere within the continental United States to celebrate a very special literary occasion: The publication of Half-Price Homicide, her ninth Dead-End Job mystery.

After nine books and many adventures, Helen and Phil begin their new life together in this novel. They have a romantic beach wedding. Helen and Phil are married by a minister in Universal Life Church. This wedding starts a new chapter for both of them.

Whether you want a romantic wedding by the sea, a mountain meadow, a luxurious garden, a grand hotel or a private home, Elaine will be honored to marry you. Because true love defies labels, she will marry either a traditional bride and groom or a same-sex couples.

RSVP your entry to Elaine Viets’ Happily Ever After contest: Email to: eviets@aol.com

(1) Your names

(2) The proposed date and time of your wedding

(3) The location. Name or type of place (private home, park, hotel), Street address, State and ZIP

Entries must be emailed by midnight, June 1, to eviets@aol.com.

The winning couple will be chosen by the Elaine Viets advertising team.

PLEASE NOTE: You will have to work out a mutually agreeable date if she has a previously scheduled event.
She will travel to the wedding at her expense within the continental USA. She has been a minister in good standing with the Universal Life Church since 1976.

The engaged couple or their representatives agree to provide lodgings for her, as well as meals, transportation to and from the airport and the ceremony, if needed. Her hotel room must be booked in advance of the wedding, if the wedding takes place outside the Fort Lauderdale area.

The couple must be of legal age to marry and either single or divorced. If one or both parties are divorced, you will be asked to produce your divorce decree(s) and all necessary identification.

Both parties must mutually consent to Elaine Viets as their minister.

Same sex weddings are legal only in the states that permit them, but she will still perform the ceremony.

Visit Elaine Viets' website for more information. Contest ends June 1, 2010