Cartoon of the Day: English Villages

 

MAIGRET ON PBS MASTERPIECE starts October 5

MAIGRET STARTS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 on Masterpiece Mystery! Scroll to watch the trailer, and scroll down for a short history of Maigret on TV and film.

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Writer Patrick Harbinson  has taken the Georges Simenon detective stories and updated them into a contemporary show starring Benjamin Wainwright as the detective Jules Maigret. The Maigret novels are the second best-selling detective series ever, behind only Sherlock Holmes and this is the first modern-day adaptation for the screen.

Maigret inhabits a vividly realized Paris that takes us from the glitzy upper-class world of luxury hotels and mansions to local bourgeois bistros and bars and the underground haunts of the professionally criminal. “To understand and not to judge”: Maigret strives above all to unravel  motivations. He is good at this not because he is a genius, or has special methods, but because he listens – he doesn’t solve crimes so much as he solves people. 

Patrick Harbinson's adaptation reframes Maigret as an unconventional young detective with something to prove, a rising star in the Police Judiciare, relentless in his investigations, with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants. 

You still have time to read a few Simeon Maigret mysteries before the premiere. They are short and easy to read. And, there are 75 novels and 28 short stories, so lots to read.

FYI: There have been over 35 actors that have played Maigret. French film adaptations began in 1932, but Jean Gabin was the first 'well-known' French actor playing the role in 1958, 59, and 63. French actors Jean Richard and Bruno Cremer followed with Jean Richard appearing in 90 episodes.

On British TV, Rupert Davies starred in the role in the 1960s (more than 50 episodes). In the early 1990s, Michael Gambon solved 12 crimes. I loved this series, and I thought Gambon was the perfect Maigret. But, the first actor in the Uk to play Maigret was Charles Laughton in the 1949 film The Man on the Eiffel Tower. I think the most recent Maigret series on TV starred Rowan Atkins in 2016 and 2017. Several of these series are streaming. 

Here's the trailer for the new series on Masterpiece. 

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: R.I.P.

Such sad news. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, 82, science fiction, horror, and mystery author, passed away on Sunday, August 31. She wrote over 80 novels and 70 short works of fiction. She was probably best known for her Saint-Germain historical vampire series and spin off Olivia De Clements. She also wrote several mysteries with Bill Fawcett under the name Quinn Fawcett. Her Charlie Spotted Moon mystery series were wonderful. Quinn was an expert on the occult, a Tarot and palm reader, as well as a musical composer. Truly a woman of many talents, she was named a World Horror Grandmaster in 2003, won a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, and received a World Fantasy Award for life achievement in 2014.

I first met Quinn at a science fiction convention in the late 70s where she read my Tarot cards. We connected over her love of mystery, though, and the friends we found we had in common. At that time, we we were also both members of MWA, and she was President of our chapter. Over the years, we often met at the post office in Berkeley where we both had PO Boxes. She was witty, supportive and to the point, never faltering. She will be missed by her many fans and friends.

Read Wiley Saichek's words here. 

Georges Simenon's MAIGRET: PBS MASTERPIECE NEWS & MORE

MASTERPIECE PBS is co-producing a new detective series - Maigret.

MASTERPIECE Head of Scripted Content and Executive Producer Susanne Simpson said: “Maigret will be a perfect addition to MASTERPIECE’s line up of Mystery! shows. Our partners at Playground have assembled an incredible cast and creative team, and our audience is going to love Inspector Maigret and his unique style of crime solving.” 

This is the first contemporary television adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novels about the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret. Production has started production in Budapest. Colin Callender and David Stern will executive produce for Playground, the Golden Globe and BAFTA award winning production company behind upcoming series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light and All Creatures Great and Small, both for MASTERPIECE.

Jules Maigret will be played by Benjamin Wainwright (Belgravia: The Next Chapter, Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim), and Stefanie Martini (The Gold, Last Kingdom, Emerald City) stars as his wife Madame Louise Maigret. Patrick Harbinson (Homeland, 24, The Tower) serves as lead writer and executive producer and will direct the first two episodes of the series.

The Jules Maigret series is the second best-selling detective series ever, behind only Sherlock Holmes. 

“To understand and not to judge”: Maigret strives above all to unravel our motivations. He is good at this not because he is a genius, or has special methods, but because he listens – he doesn’t solve crimes so much as he solves people.

I'm looking forward to the new Maigret series.

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Maigret has appeared numerous times on the screen, with at least thirty-four actors assuming the role at different times. The long list of film adaptations began in 1932, two years after Maigret was created, with the release of two films. 

Some of the actors who portrayed Maigret: Michael Gabon, Rowan Atkinson, Gérard Depardieu, Bruno Cremer, and Jean Richard.

Though Simenon's books have been adapted many times for film and television, Rupert Davies's celebrated, BAFTA-winning portrayal won the approval of Simenon himself, who stated: At last, I have found the perfect Maigret! Running to 52 episodes, this complete 1960s series has been remastered in High Definition from original film elements and is featured now on MHz in its original full screen TV format. 

Read J. Madison Davis's article on The Faces of Maigret, here: 

While you're waiting for what will be a great PBS Masterpiece series have a look at some of the other portrayals of Maigret, of which many are available to stream. 

Or, start reading Simenon's mysteries. They are wonderful!

Why read the Simenon novels?  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/04/the-enduring-depth-and-genius-of-inspector-maigret-by-graeme-macrae-burnett

Van der Valk, Series 4 News!

Van der Valk, returns for Series 4. Set in Amsterdam,  Van der Valk solves mysteries, but also has to deal with an unwelcome past romance resurfacing as well as find a way to make one of his beloved team members confront their own mortality. 

VAN DER VALK, Season 4 premieres on Sunday, September 15 at 10/9c on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS. All six episodes will also be available to stream on PBS.org, the PBS App, and the PBS MASTERPIECE Prime Video Channel. 

Can't wait. Watch Van Der Valk, Seasons 1-3, or read Nicholas Freeling's Van Der Valk series, starting with Love in Amsterdam. 

GIVE A MYSTERY READERS JOURNAL GIFT SUBSCRIPTION TO YOUR LIBRARY!

Mystery Readers Journal is a valuable resource for your Library. 40 years of thematic mystery reviews, author essays, and information: Art Mysteries; Southern California, Animals in Mysteries; Partners in Crime; Italy; France; Spies; and so many more themes. 

We are now offering Gift Subscriptions. Support your library and its readers by donating (gifting) a year's subscription! Or give a gift to a friend or relative!

GO HERE TO DONATE A GIFT SUBSCRIPTION TO YOUR LIBRARY.  

(If you give a print subscription, you can use your own email).

When Characters Struggle to Uphold Their Core Values: Guest Post by Verlin Darrow

If characters don’t act in congruence with how they generally try to live, there needs be a good reason or they’ll cease to be believable. An upright citizen can’t suddenly decide to rob a convenience store. The killer in a murder mystery has to either be a major creep or someone with a compelling motive or backstory that pulls anomalous behavior out of them. I find it wholly unsatisfying for the solution to a mystery to embody a less than fully explained, out of character act. 

All of this is central to the success of many mysteries, including my just released latest—The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth. As the name implies, Ivy attempts to live true to her Buddhist precepts as she returns to California from Sri Lanka and navigates a complex plot entailing multiple murders, a bi-polar sister and her dysfunctional family, as well as a budding romance. Sometimes Ivy fails to muster kindness or compassion. Sometimes she’s motivated by her personal agenda. Of course, these are components of the universal human condition, but Ivy, as a former Buddhist nun, expects more of herself. 

Without inner conflict, often concerning morals, priorities, and beliefs, characters lack depth and it’s harder for readers to identify with them. We all struggle to implement our best selves, or at least reach our pragmatic goals. Characters need to do so, too, or they remain nothing more than a character in a book. We need them to come alive so readers will care about what happens to them and keep turning pages to find out. 

Another important element, of course is change/transformation. The protagonist needs to undergo a process that leads somewhere, both externally—solving a mystery, for example—and internally—learning, growing, or perhaps graduating into a better life situation. Without implied or explicit attention to values, it’s hard to demonstrate that the protagonist is a somewhat different person on the last page than they were on the first. Once again, this is designed to mirror real people’s experience. Who could participate in all that Ivy encounters, for example, and remain the same? In her case, Ivy’s administration of Buddhist precepts becomes much more flexible and she learns how to integrate back into an unfamiliar world after so many years in a cloistered environment. 

Personally, I’m very much a seat of the pants writer, which helps me plot creatively, but can impede what I’m recommending here. When a bit of dialogue fits the flow—feels right—it may or may not be congruent with a character’s current values. It’s certainly possible to do this in small quantities. After all, who can behave consistently about anything? But if I let my process take over and ignore the rest, I have to do a lot of rewriting. 

Another challenging element in an attempt to portray values—showing, not telling— is when you’ve stretched to create a protagonist quite different than you. Perhaps you’re an attorney in Ohio trying to write an Agatha Christie-style drawing room mystery. Perhaps you’re working on a police procedural with no experience in law enforcement. 

In The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth, I create a first person female narrator when I am a man. I took this approach for several reasons. One, I wanted a challenge to keep me motivated so I would finish my manuscript. Numerous other projects fizzled out when I lost interest for various reasons. Two, I’m a psychotherapist, and I’ve worked with thousands of women, almost all of whom shared their thoughts, feeling, and problems quite candidly. I know more than most men about the psyches of women. And lastly, I thought it would provide an interesting contrast to have a truly gentle, kind protagonist dealing with violent people. Who could fit the bill better than a Buddhist nun? 

I also needed to know exactly what Ivy’s values were and how her return to the secular world might challenge them. I’ve experienced something similar, so this element didn’t need as much work. 

Forty years ago, I became a gung-ho spiritual seeker as a remedy for my depression and my inability to be in direct contact with the world. That led to my forming a small spiritual community with an older friend serving as the leader. When I realized he was both wise andsomewhat delusional, I graduated myself and everyone else back into the world. Then I faced what Ivy faces. It’s jarring and easy to feel lost while trying to reintegrate into mainstream culture. If I’d had murders in my family, I definitely wouldn’t have coped as well as Ivy. Her spiritual background is stronger—more durable in the face of adversity. 

At any rate, those are my thoughts on this subject. To be honest, I’m exploring this for the first time in order to produce a guest blog, so you may have better or different ideas about this. I hope I’ve at least catalyzed you to take a look at characters’ values and their roles in novels, especially mysteries. 

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A mid-sized independent press published Verlin Darrow’s Blood and Wisdom, Coattail Karma, Prodigy Quest, Murder For Liar, and The Not Quite Enlightened Detective. Two of these were were runners-up in major book award contests. Also, several short stories of his were included in anthologies. Verlin lives in the woods near Monterey Bay and his psychotherapist wife diagnoses him as needed. Visit Verlin Darrow online at: www.verlindarrow.com 

2024 CRIMEFEST AWARD SHORTLISTS

THE 2024 CRIMEFEST AWARD SHORTLISTS
Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers votes to establish the shortlist.

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD
In association with headline sponsor, the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award is for debut authors first published in the United Kingdom in 2023. The winning author receives a £1,000 prize. 
 
- Stig Abell for Death Under a Little Sky (Hemlock Press/HarperCollins)
- Jo Callaghan for In The Blink Of An Eye (Simon & Schuster)
- Megan Davis for The Messenger (Zaffre)
- Jenny Lund Madsen for Thirty Days of Darkness translated by Megan Turney (Orenda Books)
- Natalie Marlow for Needless Alley (Baskerville)
- Alice Slater for Death of a Bookseller (Hodder & Stoughton)

eDUNNIT AWARD
For the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the United Kingdom in 2023.
 
- Rachel Abbott for Don't Look Away (Wildfire)
-Jane Casey for The Close (HarperCollins)
-Martin Edwards for Sepulchre Street (Head of Zeus)
-Christina Koning for Murder at Bletchley Park (Allison & Busby)
-Laura Lippman for Prom Mom (Faber & Faber)
-Craig Russell for The Devil's Playground (Constable)

LAST LAUGH AWARD
The Last Laugh Award is for the best humorous crime novel first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
 
- Mark Billingham for The Last Dance (Sphere)
- Elly Griffiths for The Great Deceiver (Quercus)
- Mick Herron for The Secret Hours (Baskerville)
- Mike Ripley for Mr Campion's Memory (Severn House)
- Jesse Sutanto for Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers (HQ)
- Antti Tuomianen for The Beaver Theory (Orenda Books)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD
The H.R.F. Keating Award is for the best biographical or critical book related to crime fiction first published in the United Kingdom in 2023. The award is named after H.R.F. ‘Harry’ Keating, one of Britain’s most esteemed crime novelists, crime reviewers and writer of books about crime fiction.
 
- M, J, F & A Dall'Asta, Migozzi, Pagello & Pepper for Contemporary European Crime Fiction: Representing History and Politics (Palgrave)
- Lisa Hopkins for Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction (Palgrave)
- Kate Jackson for How To Survive a Classic Crime Novel (British Library Publishing)
- Steven Powell for Love Me Fierce In Danger: The Life of James Ellroy (Bloomsbury Academic)
- Nicholas Shakespeare for Ian Fleming: The Complete Man (Harvill Secker)
- Adam Sisman for The Secret Life of John Le Carré (Profile Books)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA
This award is for the best television crime drama based on a book, and first screened in the UK in 2023. 
Eligible titles were collated from the Radio Times, and CrimeFest newsletter readers established the
shortlist and the winning title.
The winning author and production company each receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award.
 
- Dalgliesh (series 2), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)
- Reacher (series 2), based on the Jack Reacher books by Lee Child (Amazon Prime)
- Shetland (series 8), based on the Shetland books by Ann Cleeves (BBC)
- Slow Horses (series 3), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple)
- The Serial Killer's Wife, based on the Serial Killer books by Alice Hunter (Paramount+)
- Vera (series 12), based on the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves (ITV)


CRIMEFEST AWARDS FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults voted alongside volunteering members of the School Library Association (SLA) to establish the shortlist and the winning title.
The winners receive a commemorative Bristol Blue Glass award.

Best Crime Fiction Novel For Children
This award is for the best crime novel for children (aged 8-12) first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
 
- A.M. Howell for Mysteries At Sea: Peril On The Atlantic (Usborne Publishing)
- Lis Jardine for The Detention Detectives (Penguin Random House Children's UK)
- Beth Lincoln for The Swifts (Penguin Random House Children's UK)
- Marcus Rashford (with Alex Falase-Koya) for The Breakfast Club Adventures: The Ghoul in the School (Macmillan Children's Books)
- Robin Stevens for The Ministry of Unladylike Activity 2: The Body in the Blitz (Penguin Random House Children's UK)
- J.T. Williams for The Lizzie and Belle Mysteries: Portraits and Poison, illustrated by Simone Douglas (Farshore)

Best Crime Fiction Novel For Young Adults
This award is for the best crime novel for young adults (aged 12-16) first published in the United Kingdom in 2023.
 
- Jennifer Lynn for Barnes The Brothers Hawthorne (Penguin Random House Children's UK)
- Nick Brooks for Promise Boys (Macmillan Children's Books)
- Ravena Guron for This Book Kills (Usborne Publishing)
- Ravena Guron for Catch Your Death (Usborne Publishing)
- Karen M. McManus for One of Us is Back (Penguin Random House Children's UK)
- Elizabeth Wein for Stateless (Bloomsbury YA) 

THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER: In Theaters October 6!

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER exclusively in theaters on October 6, 2023

Watch the Official Trailer:

 

Directed by Neil Burger

Written by Elle Smith and Mark L. Smith
Based on the bestselling novel by Karen Dionne
Produced by Teddy Schwarzman, Keith Redmon, Mark L. Smith
Starring Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Garrett Hedlund, Caren Pistorius, Brooklynn Prince and Gil Birmingham

 
In the tense thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter, a woman with a secret past will venture into the wilderness she left behind to confront the most dangerous man she’s ever met: her father. In the film, Helena’s (Daisy Ridley) seemingly ordinary life hides a dark and dangerous truth: her estranged father is the infamous Marsh King (Ben Mendelsohn), the man who kept her and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. When her father escapes from prison, Helena will need to confront her past. Knowing that he will hunt for her and her family, Helena must find the strength to face her demons and outmaneuver the man who taught her everything she knows about surviving in the wild.

Official Site:
https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/the-marsh-kings-daughter/

ENDEAVOR: THE FINAL SEASON (Season 9) STARTS 6/18

The final season (season 9) of Endeavour  premieres tomorrow,  Sunday, June 18, 2023 on Masterpiece at 9/8c on PBS and across streaming platforms. There will be 3 episodes (alas!)

 
The spinoff series inspired by Inspector Morse comes to a brilliant end as Shaun Evans as the young Morse and Roger Allam as his superior officer face baffling new crimes and an unsolved case from the past. With characters from former seasons popping up in a grand finale, Morse must resolve his professional and romantic future. The London Times praised the final episodes as “classy, poignant.” 

Plus: Endeavour documentary—Right now, prior to Endeavour’s premiere, fans can watch an hour-long documentary, Morse and The Last Endeavour, which looks back at the nine seasons of the prequel and the history of the Inspector Morse character. The documentary airs at 9/8c on June 11 and features interviews with Shaun Evans, Abigail Thaw, Kevin Whately, and many more. It's available on PBS Passport. SPOILER ALERT: You may want to watch the final season first.

Morse and The Last Endeavour will remind audiences of what made Endeavour, Inspector Morse, and Inspector Lewis so special in the world of television mysteries.

Mystery and Horror are Sisters: Guest Post by Christopher Huang

Perhaps it is summer as you are reading this, but it is the dead of winter as I write. The world outside is cold and grey, and darkness rules the greater part of the day. It is, in short, the perfect time for ghost stories: tales of creeping fear and dread, of “ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night.”

I consider myself a mystery writer, but the mystery genre -- at least, as it is understood today -- was born in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, celebrated for his tales of macabre horror. Mystery and horror are sisters, and it should not be a great leap to get from one to the other. So when it was suggested that I try my hand at a horror story, I said yes.

But horror is frequently focused on the supernatural, and while the subgenre of supernatural mystery enjoys great popularity, my preferred subgenre is the fairplay whodunnit. That’s the one where the fun is in following the clues alongside the detective and trying to solve the mystery with them: the genre ideal of the Golden Age, for which Ronald Knox wrote the rule, “All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.”

It’s not that Knox had a personal beef with the supernatural, exactly, though he was a priest and probably knew the ins and outs of exorcism. It was that a big part of playing fair in the murder mystery game -- or any game at all, really -- is the level playing field: the reader must understand the rules of the story’s world, and that’s usually accomplished by setting the story in the reader’s own world. I mean, it would be a bit of a cheat to reveal in the denouement that the muddy footprints around the murder scene actually meant that the house was infested with gremlins, and not that the gardener did it.

Authors of supernatural mysteries know how to introduce the rules of their supernatural elements to the reader, but I’m loath to lay down the law about the unknown. I mean, it’s called “the unknown” for a reason. And this, of course, put a bit of a damper on any plans I might have had for a story in which a ghost commits murder by summoning an eldritch abomination from the far reaches of the cosmos into a locked room.

But look here: horror isn’t necessarily supernatural, is it? Stephen King’s Misery contained no real supernatural elements, and even Poe, that grand-daddy of fear and guilt, wrote several stories hinging on the psychological rather than the supernatural. Could I do the same? What in the real world would I consider a source of that creeping dread that so deliciously chills the spine on a dark winter’s night?

Well, that would be a spoiler, but I wrote it and rewrote it and edited it and submitted it to my publisher. And I must confess ... Unnatural Ends is solidly mystery, not horror. A couple of advance reviews have remarked on its gothic flavour, but that is perhaps the extent to which the horror elements have survived the process. The story is its own unnatural end, a thing that has deviated from the course to which it was directed ... which is not a bad thing, honestly. Many writers talk about their work taking on a life of its own, and if art is a reflection of the artist’s psyche, perhaps it’s better, to some extent, to let the story carry itself where it wants to go than to force it down (ahem) unnatural channels to unnatural ends.
 
Mystery and horror are sisters, and it can be easy to slip from one into the other. But where horror revels in the unknown, mystery dispels it. They are two very different beasts, and for this author at least and for now, the slip seems to tend in just one direction.

***

Christopher Huang is a Singaporean-born Canadian with a background in architecture. His first novel, A Gentleman’s Murder, was released to critical acclaim in 2018. His second novel, Unnatural Ends, publishes in June 2023.

 

The Popular Culture Association: George N. Dove Award

Congratulations, Martin Edwards, for receiving the Popular Culture Association (U.S.) George N. Dove Award. The stated mission of the PCA is 'to promote the study of popular culture throughout the world through the establishment and promotion of conferences, publications, and discussion. The PCA actively tries to identify and recruit new areas of scholarly exploration and to be open to new and innovative ideas. PCA is both inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary. Finally, the PCA believes all scholars should be treated with dignity and respect.'

The George N. Dove Award is bestowed for 'outstanding contributions to the serious study of mystery, detective, and crime fiction.' The award is named for George N. Dove, past president of the Popular Culture Association, and author of outstanding books on detective fiction.

Previous winners include Professor Doug Greene, P.D. James, H.R.F. Keating, Julian Symons, and me. I know!  I received the George N. Dove Award in 2016. Such an honor!

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! 2021 Preview

Lots of great shows coming up on PBS Masterpiece Mystery! Here's a preview. Check your local station for times, but if you have PBS Passport, you can binge watch them all. Of course, you'll need to wait until the first episode of each series goes up, but that's still great! Happy Viewing.

Get a glimpse at the new seasons of Mystery! Favorites like Grantchester, Unforgotten, and Baptiste, plus the newest series Guilt, all coming in 2021. 

 

A TIME FOR COZIES: Guest Post by Clea Simon

Clea Simon:

A Time for Cozies 

Now that the holidays are well and truly over, winter is really here – as harsh as a “Game of Thrones” nightmare. Not only are the days short and cold, between the pandemic and the ongoing political rancor, I cannot remember a darker, or scarier, era. Which makes this the perfect season for a cozy, right? 

I know the arguments. The arts – including fiction – should reflect the era. Artists should mine the zeitgeist for meaning to help us understand our conflicts and travails. And I do believe there will be time for that in coming years. (Full disclosure, I’ve got a post-pandemic short story, featuring a woman whose life has been permanently changed by the extended lockdown, in Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories.)

I tend to read all over the spectrum. Only two years ago, I was entranced by Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers, a novel about a strange plague that caused people to fall into a deep, coma-like sleep. Some woke up, others did not, and the reactions of both those affected and the government made for intriguing drama. But just as I don’t believe in hitting myself over the head every time I forget how horrible things are out there, I also don’t think such dystopian books are what I want to read right now. 

I suspect I’m not alone. When I tell people that my latest – A Cat on the Case – is a cozy (a feline cozy, no less), increasingly they sound relieved. Whereas, in better times, when I’d mention my kitty-centered books at, say, a cocktail party, I’d expect to see smiles start to freeze or eyes drift over my shoulder in search of a more interesting guest, these days it’s just the opposite. Maybe it’s because these parties are on Zoom now, but increasingly I’m seeing people light up, smiles appearing on mask-less faces. Actual cheer. 

“Cat mysteries?” Even newcomers to the genre sound intrigued. “Do the cats solve the mysteries?” 

“Well, yes and no,” I explain. At which point, I tend to go off into the intricacies of my fictional world, in which my three witch cats are in fact the ones who do much of the sleuthing but who are also all very aware that their decidedly un-magical human thinks she’s the one in charge. More often than not, Thisbe has joined me by this point – prompting pets being picked up and displayed on other screens, and sometimes sitting on the keyboards. And just like that, we’re all distracted – thinking not of the cold, cruel world outside but the pups and pusses we love, or the ones we visit remotely as they sniff our screens. If I’m still talking about my books at all, at this point I’ll point out that they’re puzzle mysteries – the kind of adventure that engages the reader, providing the kind of agency that we’re feeling the lack of in reality. That they have happy endings is a given, but sometimes I bring that up too – because we need happy endings right now. 

I like to think we’ll be seeing more of those beyond the pages of our books soon. Spring will come, and it seems like the end of this pandemic is in sight as well. But until those joyful days when we can gather, perhaps at a mystery con or even just a bookstore event, I think cozies fit the bill. If I can engage a reader, distract and amuse, then I’ve done my job. Right now, that’s what I’m looking for as reader, too.

***

Clea Simon’s latest, A Cat on the Case, will be published by Polis Books on Jan. 26. “Fans of feline cozies will be charmed,” says Publishers Weekly. Her previous “witch cat” books, A Spell of Murder and An Incantation of Cats, are available in all formats now, as are her more than two dozen other mysteries, most of which involve cats. Currently hunkered down in Somerville, Massachusetts, Clea can be reached at http://www.cleasimon.com

COMING TO MASTERPIECE PBS

Right now there are so many streaming services that carry my favorite British shows that it's sometimes hard to remember where to watch and often what to watch. There's Netflix, BritBox, Acorn, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and others. But ... Masterpiece PBS is the US original broadcaster of many of these shows. You can tune in to your local PBS station..or if you're a member of your local station (you donate to PBS), you can watch these shows at your leisure on PBS Passport.

So here's what's coming up on Masterpiece:

Baptise: 

Case File: While visiting his daughter’s family in Amsterdam, Julien Baptiste (The Missing‘s lead detective) gets drawn into the search for Englishman Edward Stratton’s missing niece…and before long, everything you think you understand about this mystery is upended!
 
Lineup: Leading Baptiste‘s cast is Turkish-born French actor Tchéky Karyo, whose career spans the stage, the big screen (La Femme Nikita), and the small screen (The Missing). Also starring as Edward Stratton is Tom Hollander (on film in Bohemian Rhapsody, In the Loop, and Pride & Prejudice, and on TV in Bird Box, The Night Manager, Taboo, and on MASTERPIECE in Any Human Heart and Wives and Daughters). Clare Calbraith (Downton Abbey, Home Fires) plays Stratton’s ex-wife, and Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife, Patrick Melrose, and on MASTERPIECE in Wolf Hall) joins the cast in Episode 3.

Scene of the Crime: The narrow, neon-lit streets of present-day Amsterdam’s red-light district—the seedy underbelly to the historic city of canals, bicycles, art, and flowers.
DNA: Baptiste is a spin-off of The Missing, putting the original series’ detective front and center. But you don’t need to have watched any of The Missing to watch—and get sucked in to—Baptiste!
Timeline: Baptiste premieres in 2020 on MASTERPIECE.

Grantchester Season 5

Case File: With God on his side and a motorcycle to ride, Grantchester’s crime-fighting clergyman Will Davenport teams up (voluntarily!) with Geordie Keating to solve a series of darker, grittier crimes than ever before…and face the challenges of celibacy head-on when journalist Ellie Harding enters the picture!

Lineup: One of Season 5’s new faces is Will’s love interest, Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse). Tom Brittney joked with RadioTimes.com that “Me and Ellie are going to be the Ross and Rachel of Grantchester…I want all Grantchester to be related to Friends, in some way!” Returning characters and cast include Will Davenport (Tom Brittney), DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green), Leonard Finch (Al Weaver), “Mrs. C” (Tessa Peake-Jones) and her husband, Jack Chapman (Nick Brimble), Cathy Keating (Kacey Ainsworth), Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale), and Will’s mother, Amelia Davenport (Jemma Redgrave).

Scene of the Crime: As always, the titular Grantchester, the picturesque village on the river Cam.
Timeline: Grantchester Season 5 premieres Sunday, June 14at 9/8c on MASTERPIECE.

Endeavour Season 7

Case File: When we last saw Endeavour Morse at the end of Season 6, he was settling in at the station and the house that would become home to his character in the Inspector Morse series. But it doesn’t ensure happiness for our cerebral and solitary hero, who will face a series of enigmatic murders.

Lineup: At this time, we know that Shaun Evans and Roger Allam (Endeavour Morse and Fred Thursday) are returning for Season 7.
Scene of the Crime: Oxford’s spires and grassy quads, often its pubs, and all too often, its morgues.

Timeline: Endeavour returns to MASTERPIECE on PBS with three new mysteries in 2020.

Van Der Valk

Case File: Street-smart and unapologetic detective Piet Van Der Valk is an everyman of sorts, investigating high profile cases and gritty murders that immerse him and his team in contemporary Amsterdam’s fast-paced worlds of art, politics, addiction, mysticism, and fashion.

Lineup: Marc Warren (Beecham House) stars as Commissaris Piet Van der Valk, and Maimie McCoy (The Musketeers) is Inspector Lucienne Hassell. Other cast include Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Ready Player One), Darrell D’Silva, and Emma Fielding (MASTERPIECE’s Unforgotten Season 3, Les Misérables, Dark Angel, and Cranford.) Guest stars who MASTERPIECE viewers might recognize include Daniel Lapaine (The Durrells in Corfu) and Tom York (Poldark).
Scene of the Crime: Van Der Valk is filmed entirely on location in Amsterdam.

DNA: In a reboot of the original 1970s and ’90s Van Der Valk, which was loosely based on the novels by Nicolas Freeling, this reimagining departs almost entirely from the novels and thrillingly showcases today’s modern Amsterdam.
Timeline: Van Der Valk premieres on MASTERPIECE on PBS in summer 2020!

Miss Scarlet and the Duke

Case File: When headstrong Eliza Scarlet is left penniless after the death of her father, she has two choices for financial security: marriage or her father’s private detective agency. But no matter how well she knows the tricks of his trade, the trade itself is deemed entirely inappropriate for a genteel lady of the 1880s. Enter “The Duke,” Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector William Wellington, a notorious drinker, gambler, womanizer…and a partner in running the agency and solving crime, all with a dash of will-they-won’t they energy, wit, and moxie!

Lineup: Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, The Downton Abbey Movie, Wolf Hall, and The Crown) stars as Eliza Scarlet, and Stuart Martin (Jamestown, Babylon, Medici) stars as The Duke.

Scene of the Crime: The dark underbelly of Victorian London.

DNA: Miss Scarlet and the Duke is created and written by Rachael New, who wrote for Grantchester Season 4.

Timeline: Miss Scarlet and the Duke comes to MASTERPIECE on PBS in 2020.

See mystery shows and more from MASTERPIECE when you watch with PBS Passport, an added member benefit. Find out what’s available in PBS Passport from MASTERPIECE.

 

Pat Lupoff: R.I.P.

Sad news. Pat Lupoff, longtime science fiction, comic book and mystery fan, bookseller par excellence, and friend, has passed away. Pat Lupoff was the co-winner with her husband Richard Lupoff of the 1963 Best Fanzine Hugo Award for Xero — which made her the first female recipient of a Hugo. Pat was also the mystery and children's book buyer at Cody's and then Dark Carnival. I knew she hadn't been well in the last few years, but still it's a shock. My heart goes out to Dick, her family, and her many friends.

Audie Awards 2018

The Audio Publishers Association (APA) has announced the winners of the 2018 Audie Awards.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye has won top honors in the Mystery category, and The Fourth Monkey has won for the best Thriller/Suspense audiobook.

The 23rd Annual Audies Gala was held on May 31st at the New-York Historical Society in New York City. Often referred to as the “Oscars of spoken word entertainment,” the evening marks a gathering of authors, narrators and publishers excited to hear who will win the most prestigious awards in the United States honoring audiobooks.

Award-winning narrator, Simon Vance hosted the event, delighting the audience with his wit and spontaneity. Linda Lee, President of the APA, had this to say about this prestigious event, “The Audies Awards Gala gives us a time to recognize all the hard work that so many talented people put into thousands of productions each year. Each of the nominees and winners are to be commended for the tremendous contributions they have made to our flourishing industry and this special event is the perfect venue for us to show appreciation to each and every one of them.”

Mystery and Thriller/Suspense audiobook winners: 

MYSTERY 
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
By David Lagercrantz
Read by Simon Vance
Random House Audio

THRILLER/SUSPENSE 
The Fourth Monkey
By J.D. Barker
Read by Edoardo Ballerini and Graham Winton
Recorded Books

To hear audio clips, go here www.theaudies.com

Cartoon of the Day: Bookstore

Cartoon of the Day: Best Murder Mystery of the Year

Father Anselm and the Discourtesy of Death: Guest post by William Brodrick

Augustinian friar-turned lawyer William Brodrick presents Father Anselm, lawyer-turned Augustinian friar-turned amateur detective, in this thrilling and revelatory new novel, The Discourtesy of Death (The Overlook Press · Publication Date: August 2, 2016). More than a simple whodunnit, this book--and all the books of the Father Anselm series, soon to be released from Overlook--invokes serious contemporary issues, deepening the pursuit of justice for Anselm and the reader alike. William Brodrick, in a career change that reverses that of his character Father Anselm's, was an Augustinian friar before leaving in order to become a practicing barrister. His novels include The Sixth Lamentation, The Gardens of the Dead, A Whispered Name, The Day of the Lie, The Discourtesy of Death, The Silent Ones, and the latest The Discourtesy of Death. He won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger award in 2009 for A Whispered Name. 

William Brodrick:
Father Anselm and the Discourtesy of Death

Mysteries are fiction with a moral concern. Even when they are supposedly light and entertaining, questions about guilt and responsilbity, justice and mercy, right and wrong, remain central to the story. Which is why they are captivating and, dare I say it, important. Because – speaking for myself – it is when I come across something that is both entertaining and serious that I am most profoundly engaged.

Inevitably, then, the investigator in a mystery has a lot of responsibility. He or she must solve the crime. They must set things right. Restore the balance in favour of what is good, against the incursion of evil. But, if they are so inclined, they can also try and make sense of what has happened. Ask the questions we all ask when life gets messy and things swing out of control. And this is what I have tried to do with Father Anselm. Or, to be more precise, this is what Father Anselm has tried to do with me ... because one of the mysteries about writing is that characters tell you who they are and what they’re going to do. They take control and telling their story becomes a kind of willing cooperation. I’d imagined Anselm to be a former lawyer who’d become a monk who is then thrust into situations against his will – and that is who he is – but I only really met him, so to speak, in the books. His concern went beneath the resolution of a given crisis. He tried to bring justice into situations well beyond the reach of the courts. His eye was on the welfare of the perpetrator, too, as well as the victim. He wanted to understand the criminal as much as explain the crime. And so Anselm showed himself to be an investigator with a very personal sort of mission: to try and bring about some redemption, for everyone, here and now, in impossible circumstances.

Having a serious purpose doesn’t mean we can’t have a laugh. Anselm’s home, Larkwood Priory, may be a monastery, but it is populated with characters whose idiosyncrasies overwhelm any gravitas: a self-important archivist who’s permanently indignant, an aged ascetic who never stops talking about the day he met Baden Powell, a retiring guestmaster who is nervous of meeting people. And, of course, there’s Anselm ... a beekeeper who’s never got over the sting issue. Their topsy-turvy existence is one step removed from ordinary life, which gives this particular beekeeper a special vantage point onto the vexed world he left behind. And that brings me to The Discourtesy of Death, Anselm’s first outing with The Overlook Press, for it deals with the vexing question of mercy killing.

Jennifer Henderson was one of those people who knew the meaning of misfortune. A former dancer, she returned to the stage only to fall and break her neck. Paralysed from the chest down and bedridden, she grappled with depression until bowel cancer brought her life to a quick and merciful end. Or at least that’s what everyone believes. The truth could be rather different, because two years after her death, Anselm receives an anonymous letter accusing Peter Henderson, her husband, of her callous murder. So Anselm is drawn into very deep water indeed: was Jenny in fact murdered or was she helped to die? And if she was helped, had she been persuaded or forced to end her life ... because, frankly, it was considered best for everyone involved? Except, perhaps, for Jenny herself. And even then, what was left of Jenny’s life? Was it even worth holding onto, set against the difference it would make to her family if she were to quietly slip away? Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, because unknown to Anselm, Jenny’s father isn’t especially troubled by ethics. He’s set out to execute his daughter’s presumed killer.

The Discourtesy of Death is about the tricky area of choice. It is about how our choices can be tightly woven into other people’s needs and desires ... how our freedom is rarely unencumbered. It’s also a mystery. And, I hope, an entertaining one.