Snatched: Karin Slaughter’s Wicked New Novella
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Ever-popular crime and mystery book writer Karin Slaughter gives us a brand new Will Trent novella, exclusively in eBook format. For those of us not familiar with Trent, Slaughter’s hero from many earlier mystery books, this is a great introduction to the agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Will is relegated to checking airport restrooms for illicit sexual activity as punishment for not keeping his hair at regulation GBI length. While on duty at the Atlanta airport, Trent overhears a young girl in the next restroom cubicle pleading with the man she’s with to be allowed to go home. It could just be an innocent conversation between a child and a parent, but his gut tells him that something’s wrong. Held back by his own self-doubt and a dead cellphone, Will is too late to go to the girl’s aid before she and the man who she’s with disappear into the busy airport. Trent searches desperately for her on his own, but when he can’t find them, he gets the authorities to shut down the airport so they can – he doesn’t care about the disruption, as long as he can find the girl, and get her home. Snatched includes an excerpt of Slaughter’s new mystery book, Criminal, which will be out in in July.
2012 Edgar Award Winners!
By · CommentsThe Mystery Writers of America have finally announced the winners of the Edgar Awards for 2012. The awards, which are named after Edgar Allan Poe, have been in existence since 1945, and are traditionally awarded to the best mystery books, and to writers who have contributed significantly to the genre.
This year’s best mystery novel is by none other than veteran writer Mo Hayder. Gone, the third book in Hayder’s Walking Man series featuring DI Jack Caffery. Hayder was up against some stiff competition including Ace Atkins (who has been tapped to work on the late Robert B. Parker’s Spenser books), Anne Holt and Philip Kerr.
Other mystery books that were given the nod by the Mystery Writers of America include Bent Road by Lori Roy for the rather specific award, Best First Novel by an American Author, and The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett for Best Paperback Original.
As mentioned in my earlier article, British Grand Dame of mysteries Martha Grimes (best known for her Richard Jury mystery books) was also awarded the Grand Master Award at the Edgars. The full list of the winners can be found here, and free excerpts of the nominated books can be found here.
Stolen Prey by John Sandford (Lucas Davenport)
If you’re a fan of the “Prey” novels featuring Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Lucas Davenport, then you won’t want to miss Stolen Prey, the latest John Sandford book. It’s the 22nd John Sandford book featuring Davenport, and revolves around the brutal killing of a family in a small Minnesota town. The husband, wife and children are killed; even the pet dogs are not spared. Davenport is called in to investigate, and he’s puzzled at the similarities between the massacre and drug killings. The husband was a banker, and the town is the farthest thing from a hotbed of drugs. The Mexican Federales turn up in Minnesota to help with the investigation given a Mexican connection, and all the while Davenport struggles to figure out the case. Before the book is done, Davenport’s solved not only the gruesome murders, but a whole series of inter-related crimes.
Flavia de Luce Mystery Book Series to be Adapted for TV
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If you aren’t already familiar with Canadian author Alan Bradley’s mystery book series featuring Flavia de Luce, you’ll soon be. Highly-acclaimed director Sam Mendes (of American Beauty and Revolutionary Road fame) has bought the rights to the bestselling author’s books.
Bradley won the Debut Dagger Award of the British Crimewriter’s Association for the first book in the Flavia de Luce series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and has published three other Flavia de Luce books. The British director and Oscar winner intends to turn the mystery book series into a number of TV movies. For now, Mendes is hard at work filming the latest James Bond movie, Skyfall, with Daniel Craig, but it’s only a matter of time before he gets started on bringing the adventures of Flavia to us.
The books in the Flavia de Luce series follow the adventures of a girl who lives in an ancient country house somewhere in England. She’s almost 11, and the year is 1950 .She’s an unusual sleuth, with an odd family, and a brilliant mind. Although Mendes is best known for his work in films, he is no stranger to bringing books to the small screen. Earlier this year, Mendes saw critical success with the TV adaptation of Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth for the BBC. It seems Mendes may have an interest in post Second World War life in England since Call the Midwife is also set in 1950s Britain!
The Black Stiletto: 1950s Super Heroine Speaks!
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Title: The Black Stiletto
Author: Raymond Benson
Genre: Mystery
Accountant Martin Talbot can hardly believe it when he reads his elderly mother’s diaries. It appears that Judy, the gentle old lady, now stricken with Alzheimer’s, was once the Black Stiletto, a super hero(ine) who was famed in the late 50s and early 60s for her vigilante feats against the Mob, spies, and petty criminals. The Black Stiletto even had a costume – a mask and a leather outfit. Even though she disappeared, she spawned a comic book series, a movie, and lived on in people’s minds. As Martin goes through his mother’s diaries, he learns the reason for Judy’s decision to take the law into her own hands. It’s fascinating for Martin to learn more about his mother, but things turn dangerous when past and present collide. Roberto Ranelli, who was a mob enforcer when the Black Stiletto was still operating, has finally been released on parole from Sing Sing after 52 years – and he wants revenge…
Charlaine Harris’ Mystery Series Bound for Television
By · CommentsCharlaine Harris may be best known for her quirky Sookie Stackhouse vampire series, but readers often forget that she was first and foremost a mystery writer. She wrote the Aurora Teagarden cozy mystery series and the Shakespeare series before coming up with the idea for the Sookie Stackhouse books – which incidentally are officially titled The Southern Vampire Mysteries series.
There’s been great success in translating Harris’ books about the psychic waitress sleuth from print to screen with HBO’s True Blood series, and it looks like other networks are looking for a repeat with another of Harris’ unusual characters. According to news reports, Harris has sold the rights for the Harper Connelly Mysteries to Syfy. Syfy intends to produce a new series based on the Connelly character, and the pilot will be based on the first book in the series, Grave Sight. (There are four books in the series so far.) The pilot is already being worked on by Kam Miller, who has previously worked on Law and Order: SVU.
For those unfamiliar with Harris’ Harper Connelly novels, it’s similar to the Sookie Stackhouse books in that the heroine has an unusual gift. The similarities end there however – Harper’s world is not inhabited by vampires, werewolves, witches or fairies, only ordinary humans who can be just as vicious as the supernatural creatures that live in and around Bon Temps.
Harper’s gift is that she can see the last thoughts and resting place of dead people. She didn’t always have that ability – it came only after she survived a lightning strike, and with it came also a bad limp and an aversion to thunderstorms. Harper’s ability is a very marketable service and she contracts her services out to clients with the assistance of her step-brother Tolliver who acts as her manager, bodyguard, and general dogsbody. In Grave Sight, Harper takes on a client in a small Arkansas town who hires her to find the body of a young girl. The job’s an easy one, and she finds the body in no time. But when Harper and Tolliver try to leave town, an attempt is made on Harper’s life, and Tolliver is arrested and jailed on a trumped up charge. Harper realizes that someone in town has a secret to protect, and will stop at nothing to do so.
No word yet when we’ll be able to watch the pilot, but in the meantime, you can get acquainted with Harper in Grave Sight.
