ENDEAVOR, Series 2: PBS Masterpiece

I've just finished viewing the first two episodes of Endeavor, Series 2, which will be shown in the U.S. on PBS Masterpiece, starting on June 29. There are 4 new episodes that comprise the series. Well done! Shaun Evans does a great job of playing the young Inspector Morse. The series, as you may remember, is set in the 1960s in Oxford. Except for a few references, it has a timeless quality. Not as riveting as The Escape Artist, but certainly solid and enjoyable. Love matching wits with Morse. I've been watching the entire older "Morse" series again  to complement my viewing.

Shaun Evans (The Take, The Last Weekend, Silk), portrays the young cerebral and solitary Detective Constable Morse. He returns in Series 2 with four new mysteries written by Inspector Lewis creator and Inspector Morse writer Russell Lewis.

In Trove (June 29), Nocturne (July 6), Sway (July 13), and Neverland (July 20), Endeavour Morse contends with the aftershocks of his terrifying brush with death as he conducts his dogged, incorruptible pursuit of justice from the shadows of Oxford and the fringes of the police force.

Roger Allum costars as Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, and Abigail Thaw, daughter of Inspector Morse star John Thaw, makes special guest appearances as Dorothea Frazil.

Bouchercon Dreams

I love Bouchercon, the world mystery convention. Bouchercon is a fan-tastic 4 day fan convention for readers, writers, editors, publishers and everyone who loves mysteries. What you might not know is that I actually attend Bouchercon many nights during the year. How is that possible? Because I “dream of Bouchercon.” Yes, I’d say at least once a week I have a dream in which I’m with friends at Bouchercon, checking into hotels, attending panels, meeting up at the bar, sightseeing, and more. Now, just to be clear, these dreams are not nightmares.

O.K. so why do I dream about Bouchercon? Probably because it is only takes place one weekend a year, and I have to pack up all those dreams and make them a reality in a mere 4 or 5 days! Those days are so much fun and so full of crime fiction and friends, that they fly by all too quickly. So my dreams fill in the gaps. LOL

I’ve been attending Bouchercon for over 30 years, and each Bouchercon is fresh and new, specifically because of new programming, new writers and the fact that B'con is always held in a different location. What I like best about Bouchercon is meeting old friends, making new ones, and spending time with people who are passionate about reading, and mysteries, in particular. So when I was asked to be part of the blog tour for the Long Beach Bouchercon, I said yes!

This year Bouchercon will be in Long Beach, November 13-16, 2014. Check out the website for Guests of Honor, Hotels, Trips, Attendees and more.

There will be over 2000 attendees this year, so I have a few tips (or refreshers for past attendees) to make your Bouchercon experience the very best! There’s multi-panel programming, so you’ll need to make some tough decisions. You won’t be able to see or hear it all. That being said, enjoy what you do see, and don’t worry about the rest. Be sure to attend special events, such as opening ceremonies, the banquet, guest of honor interviews, special luncheons. Come early, stay late. There will be side-trips.

Places to meet other readers and writers in a casual way: 
 1) The lobby. Have a seat and watch the world go by or strike up a conversation with the person next to you. That person might be a best selling thriller writer or someone who will become a life-long friend.
 2) The Bookroom: good for ‘grazing’ and interacting with others who are buying books and might need your expert advice. Be sure and buy some books!
3) The bar: even if you’re not a drinker, it’s all happening at the bar! Be sure and stop by.. mostly later in the evening, but any time works! Don't be shy.
4) Restaurants and coffee shops: If someone’s wearing a Bcon tag when you’re out and about, be sure and say hi! Or put together a small group for dinner and ask anyone standing around the hotel lobby to join you.

Volunteer:
I volunteered to be on the committee of the first Bouchercon I attended. Since then I’ve been on 5 host committees, and now I’m on the Bouchercon Board. Maybe that’s more than you want to do, but there are many other fun ways to volunteer onsite at the convention. Check out the possibilities to volunteer at B'con: Murder at the Beach- Long Beach. It’s great fun!

So those are just a few tips for enjoying yourself at Bouchercon this year. Over the next few months I’ll be posting more. And, I just might be on the Bouchercon 101 panel. Or maybe Bouchercon 202… how to get even more out of your Bouchercon experience!

Hope to see you at Bouchercon: Murder at the Beach in November.

In the meantime, see you in my dreams….

Audie Awards

The Audie Awards (Audio Publishers Association) were announced last night. To see the winners in all categories, go HERE. Congratulations to all!

FICTION
Doctor Sleep By Stephen King
Read by Will Patton
Simon & Schuster Audio

CLASSIC
The Complete Sherlock Holmes By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Simon Vance
Brilliance Audio

SHORT STORIES/COLLECTIONS
Sherlock Holmes in America By John L. Lellenberg et al.
Read by Graham Malcolm
Audible, Inc.

MYSTERY
Unleashed By David Rosenfelt
Read by Grover Gardner
Listen & Live Audio

THRILLER/SUSPENSE
The Hit By David Baldacci
Read by Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy
Hachette Audio

Cartoon of the Day: Indecisive Novelist's Characters Converse

Love Tom Gauld's cartoons. LOL!

Bus Stop Library

This Bus Stop Library is in Bogoa, Columbia. "Making books available to everyone who patiently waits for public transport."

 

HT: Paul D. Marks

Literary Salon: Joseph Finder- Sunday, June 1 in Berkeley

Join Mystery Readers NorCal for an evening with award winning thriller writer Joseph Finder on Sunday, June 1, at 7 p.m, in Berkeley, CA. This is one of only two Bay Area appearances--the other is at Copperfield's in Santa Rosa.

Comment below with email address for directions and to RSVP. This event is FREE, but limited. Potluck hors d'oevres.

JOSEPH FINDER

Joseph Finder’s plan was to become a spy. Or maybe a professor of Russian history. Instead he became a bestselling thriller writer, and winner of the Strand Critics Award for Best Novel for BURIED SECRETS (2011), winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for KILLER INSTINCT (2006) and winner of the Barry and Gumshoe Awards for Best Thriller for COMPANY MAN (2005).  
Born in Chicago, Joe spent his early childhood living around the world, including Afghanistan and the Philippines. In fact, Joe’s first language — even before English — was Farsi, which he spoke as a child in Kabul. After a stint in Bellingham, WA, his family finally settled outside of Albany, NY.  

After taking a high school seminar on the literature and history of Russia, Joe was hooked. He went on to major in Russian studies at Yale, where he also sang with the school's legendary a cappella group, the Whiffenpoofs (and likes to boast that he sang next to Ella Fitzgerald, an honorary Whiffenpoof). Joe graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then completed a master’s degree at the Harvard Russian Research Center, and later taught on the Harvard faculty. He was recruited to the Central Intelligence Agency but eventually decided he preferred writing fiction.


His first book, published in 1983 when Joe was only 24, was RED CARPET: THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE KREMLIN AND AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL BUSINESSMEN, the first book to reveal that the controversial multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer, the CEO of Occidental Petroleum, had worked for Soviet intelligence in the 1920s and 1930s. (This book is no longer in print.)  

But RED CARPET was only part of the story that Joe wanted to tell. So he wrote his first novel – the only way he could legally tell the whole Armand Hammer saga. Published in 1991, THE MOSCOW CLUB described events whose factual truth would only be revealed many years later. THE MOSCOW CLUB was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best spy thrillers of all time and was published in thirty foreign countries.


What followed were three more critically-acclaimed thrillers – EXTRAORDINARY POWERS, THE ZERO HOUR (sold to Twentieth-Century Fox for a record sum) and HIGH CRIMES, which became a 2002 Fox film starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman. Joe was invited on the movie set and even cast for a nonspeaking role as a JAG prosecutor.
 
Published in 2004, PARANOIA represented a major turning point in Joe’s career, landing on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others. It was his first book to use the ruthless drive, corruption and conspiracy of the corporate world as riveting plotline. PARANOIA was called “fun...movie-ready...[with] twists aplenty...” by Entertainment Weekly. A major motion picture based on PARANOIA was released summer of 2013 and starred Liam Hemsworth, Gary Oldman and Harrison Ford.


Joe’s next three novels – COMPANY MAN, KILLER INSTINCT and POWER PLAY – were all bestsellers in which things were decidedly not business as usual. He was quickly hailed as “the CEO of suspense.”


In VANISHED, published August 2009 by St. Martin's Press and an immediate bestseller, Joe introduced his new continuing character, "private spy" Nick Heller. Trained in the Special Forces, Nick is a high-powered intelligence investigator – exposing secrets that powerful people would rather keep hidden. He's a guy you don't want to mess with. He's also the man you call when you need a problem fixed. The second novel in the series, BURIED SECRETS, was published June 2011.
Joe’s latest book  SUSPICION is a stand-alone novel about a single father who, to protect his daughter, makes a choice with dire consequences. 

In addition to his fiction, Joe does occasional work for Hollywood, is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and Council on Foreign Relations, and has written on espionage and international affairs for a number of publications, including TheDailyBeast.com, Forbes, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. In an April 2006 New York Times Book Review article, Joe discussed his fascination with ambition as a subject for fiction. He roots for the Boston Red Sox and lives in Boston with his wife, daughter, and a needy golden retriever, Mia, a dropout from seeing-eye-dog school.

Hope you can join us next Sunday evening for a 'thrilling' Literary Salon in Berkeley with Joseph Finder!