The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival opened today in Harrogate. As part of the opening day ceremonies, the winner of the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year was announced.
And the winner this year is:
◊ Death Message by Mark Billingham.
Thanks to Euro Crime for posting this breaking news.
Congratulations from all of us at MBN! Visit Mystery Book Awards for more information on over 30 other awards recognizing outstanding mystery fiction.
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Winners of the 2009 Benjamin Franklin Awards have been announced by the Independent Book Publishers Association. Awards are given in many categories, including Mystery / Suspense, for books published in the previous calendar year.
And the winner this year is:
◊ Head Wounds by Chris Knopf 
We had the pleasure of reviewing Head Wounds, calling it "an exceptional novel, in both character and setting, but most importantly in how the plot develops." We also included the book in our list of the best mysteries of 2008.
Also winning this year in the Literary Criticism category, and of interest to mystery readers who may be considering becoming mystery writers, is Chris Roerden for her book Don't Sabotage Your Submission: Save Your Manuscript from Turning Up D.O.A., an all-genre version of her Agatha Award-winning title Don't Murder Your Mystery.
Our congratulations to all the winners this year!
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Mystery Books News is pleased to be coordinating this week's online book tour for Paul Martin Midden, author of the provocative political thriller Toxin.
Today, Thursday July 23rd, Paul will be visiting 2 blog sites:
• Allie's Musings where Paul is interviewed; and
• Bookish Ruth where Paul is a guest blogger discussing plot development.
We're also thrilled to announce that Paul is giving away a signed copy of his new book to one lucky tour visitor. Visit each tour site on the day indicated and pick up a unique PIN to be used to enter the giveaway on that day. The entry form can be found on Paul's tour page, which also has a complete schedule of his tour including a biography and more information about Toxin.
We hope you have the opportunity to stop by each of the tour sites this week to learn more about Paul and a terrifyingly-real storyline that deftly blurs the lines between fiction and reality.
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Last month we posted the official "unofficial" trailer of the Warner Bros. film Whiteout. Yesterday IGN posted the "official" trailer.
The film is adapted from the graphic novel Whiteout by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber and stars Kate Beckinsale as U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko investigating a murder at an American base on Antarctica. As the case takes a deadly twist and a 60-year-old secret is unearthed, Stetko herself becomes a target. U.N. Special Agent Robert Pryce (Gabriel Macht), sent to monitor her progress, could prove to be a powerful ally, but only if solving the murder is what he's really after. With only days before the last plane out and the station powers down for the long winter, Stetko must race to unravel the mystery or risk being stranded on the ice as darkness and the killer closes in.
Whiteout, originally scheduled to be released last year, will be in theaters September 11th. Watch the trailer below:
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A new poster is available on Yahoo! Movies for Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and based on a novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane.
The film takes place in the year 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) and his new partner, Chuck Aule (played by Mark Ruffalo), have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane bears relentlessly down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades -- with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.
Shutter Island is scheduled to be in theaters October 2nd. Watch a trailer for the film below:
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Mystery Books News is pleased to be coordinating this week's online book tour for Paul Martin Midden, author of the provocative political thriller Toxin.
Today, Wednesday July 22nd, Paul will be visiting 2 blog sites:
• Wendi's Book Corner where Toxin is reviewed; and
• Mystery Reader Discussion where CNN has a (fictional) interview with the senator featured in the book.
We're also thrilled to announce that Paul is giving away a signed copy of his new book to one lucky tour visitor. Visit each tour site on the day indicated and pick up a unique PIN to be used to enter the giveaway on that day. The entry form can be found on Paul's tour page, which also has a complete schedule of his tour including a biography and more information about Toxin.
We hope you have the opportunity to stop by each of the tour sites next week to learn more about Paul and a terrifyingly-real storyline that deftly blurs the lines between fiction and reality.
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Comic Book Resources (CBR) is reporting that bestselling mystery author Janet Evanovich will publish the next entry in the Metro Girl series as a comic book. Set in the world of NASCAR, Alexandra "Alex" Barnaby has appeared in two novels: Metro Girl and Motor Mouth. The highly anticipated third installment will appear as a graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics. The Portland-based publisher will break the news of this project at this week's Comic-Con International in San Diego.
CBR writes that Evanovich is passionate about comics, an enthusiastic fan, and excited about the prospect of working within the medium. She's also apparently been planning this move since the first Alex Barnaby mystery appeared in 2004. In an interview with CBR, she says, "I know that I build my audience as a novelist. And I know that comic books are a whole other thing -- the market is smaller, and it's a more difficult sell. So we just thought that putting out a couple of books to my audience was a good way to start. We really are hoping to bring a lot of those people over into the comic book land."
There's much more to the interview than just discussing comic books. When asked why she blends positive characters with bad elements in her books, she replies, "First of all, it makes your book interesting, it gives you a variety. Something to balance the good with. And it's a part of life, you know? There are bad things happening out there very day. If you are going to construct a story that was all goodness, you'd probably be writing a romance novel. But I do like the mystery, I do like the crime element in it. We all need heroes, and one of the ways to have a hero of course is to have a bad guy. If I have a crime in my book, I can have a hero. Crime really serves a purpose for me to give my hero something to do."
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Her Interactive has released a new trailer for The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks (Nintendo DS), the first game in the franchise for the company. Her Interactive is probably best known for its immensely popular Nancy Drew mystery games.
In The Hardy Boys: Treasure on the Tracks, you, as the Hardy Boys, are invited onboard the Royal Express traveling from Paris to St Petersburg to follow the mysterious trail of the Romanov Family treasure. Take a ride on the Royal Express to track down the lost clues of the Royal family in the great cities of Europe!
The game is scheduled to be released in September, only for Nintendo DS. Watch the trailer below:
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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that film rights for Gil Adamson's debut novel The Outlander have been sold to a trio of firms. The Outlander was the winner of the 2007 Hammett Prize awarded by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers for literary excellence in the field of crime writing.
Synopsis: In 1903, a mysterious young woman flees alone across the west, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, Mary Boulton has just become a widow – and her husband’s killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother’s death. Responding to little more than the primitive fight for life, the widow retreats ever deeper into the wilderness – and into the wilds of her own mind – encountering an unforgettable cast of eccentrics along the way.
In our review of The Outlander, we said, "For readers who want a cracking good story with unforgettable characters engaged in tension-filled activities, and told with a superlative richness of language and a lushness of imagery, Gil Adamson’s novel, The Outlander, is it. Her widow, Mary Boulton, and 'Bonny', her Reverend, are the ideal stuff and stuffings of legends."
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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Brad Inglesby will adapt Vivian Schilling's 1994 debut thriller Sacred Prey for Warner Bros.
Synopsis: In an abandoned cabin deep within the Louisiana bayou, loan shark Adam Claiborne and his brother Kyle have cornered a young couple with a delinquent debt to settle. But their collection doesn't go according to planned and Charlie Sinclair and his wife Monique end up dead. Adam--a devout Catholic with less than honorable dealings with the Church--makes his contributions and all is forgiven … until now. When he confesses the murder with a chilling nonchalance, he is surprised to find a new priest on the receiving end of his admission. The mysterious priest refuses the much-needed absolution. "Until you know the sorrows of your victims, your sins cannot be forgiven." Adam is tormented by the refusal. That night he sleeps restlessly, with one hellish nightmare after another. In his dreams, he goes back to the place where he left the dead bodies, only to find the young, beautiful woman still alive. As she seduces him, he awakens to find himself wrapped within her arms, inhabiting the flesh of his victim Charlie Sinclair. Adam is horrified to find that it is three days back in time, and he is now trapped in the body of his intended quarry. With a new perspective on Charlie's last unimaginable days of terror, Adam must fight for his life against the dark force he, himself, created. Unless destiny itself can be altered, unless Adam can find within him the pieces to make the contrition, he is about to be hunted, cornered and brutally murdered … by the merciless killer who, somewhere, wears his face.
We think it's a great title and no doubt the author does as well, but the producers are reportedly considering something more generic (and considerably less imaginative) like Hit Man.
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