Ann Cleeves' The Long Call TV News!

From Deadline:

Silverprint Pictures is set to adapt Ann Cleeves' new mystery The Long Call for television. The producer has optioned the book which is the first in Cleeves’ new Two Rivers series.

Silverprint previously adapted Cleeves’ Shetland, which has run for five seasons on the BBC, and Brenda Blethyn-fronted Vera, which was recently renewed for a tenth season on ITV.

The book, which is published by Pan Macmillan (Minotaur Books in the U.S.) was just released today. It's set in North Devon, where the author spent her teenage years. It follows the reserved and complex Detective Inspector Matthew Venn, as well as an ensemble of characters, evoking the stark beauty of the North Devon coastline, and a community where murder and intrigue bubble just beneath the surface.

The opening of The Long Call has Detective Matthew Venn standing outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. When he left the strict, evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family, too. But a call to investigate a murdered body found on the beach nearby soon brings Matthew back to the people and places of his past. What he discovers there will force Matthew’s new life into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.

I loved the book. It's such a wonderful addition to Cleeves' oeuvre. Totally gripping! Can't wait to see it on screen.

TONY HILLERMAN PRIZE

At the Tony Hillerman Writers Conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Wordharvest and Thomas Dunne Books/ Minotaur Books announced that John Fortunato's DARK RESERVATIONS has won the 2014 Tony Hillerman Prize for best debut crime fiction novel set in the Southwest. The prize comes with a publishing contract with St. Martin's Press and $10,000.

John Fortunato was a Captain in the U.S. Army, Military Intelligence, who served at the Pentagon during the early part of the Global War on Terrorism. He is now a Special Agent with the FBI and has earned an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hall University. A native of Philadelphia, he currently lives in Michigan with his wife and three daughters.

Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mysteries, set on the Navajo reservation, were the first "regional" mysteries to become national bestsellers. His work has been praised by reviewers and the Navajo Nation for its ability to combine Navajo traditions and beliefs with a well-told mystery story. Hillerman's writing reflects his appreciation for the natural wonders and stark beauty of the American Southwest and its people, particularly the Navajo.  His books have been translated into many languages and frequently make the New York Times bestseller list. At age 83, Hillerman passed away on October 26, 2008.

In 2013, Leaphorn and Chee returned in SPIDER WOMAN'S DAUGHTER by Anne Hillerman, Tony Hillerman's daughter. In 2004, she launched the first Tony Hillerman Writers Conference: Focus on Mystery through Wordharvest, the business which she co-founded with Jean Schaumberg. The conference highlights the craft and business of writing, featuring presentations by prominent published authors. In 2010 conference organizers broadened the focus to include general fiction and nonfiction.