The CWA International Dagger:
The Potter’s Field by Andrea Camilleri, translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Mantle)
I will have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni, translated by Anne Milano Appel (Hersilia Press)
Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson, translated by Laurie Thompson (Quercus/Maclehose)
Trackers by Deon Meyer, translated by T K L Seegers (Hodder & Stoughton)
Phantom by Jo Nesbø, translated by Don Bartlett (Harvill Secker)
The Dark Valley by Valerio Varesi, translated by Joseph Farrell (Quercus/Maclehose)

The CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger:
The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau (Orion)
I Will Have Vengeance by Maurizio de Giovanni (Hersilia Press)
Bitter Water by Gordon Ferris (Corvus)
Prague Fatale by Philip Kerr (Quercus)
Icelight by Aly Monroe (John Murray)
Sacrilege by SJ Parris (HarperCollins)
A Willing Victim by Laura Wilson (Quercus)

The CWA Non-Fiction Dagger:
To Live Outside the Law by Leaf Fielding (Serpent’s Tail )
Dark Market by Misha Glenny (Vintage)
Hood Rat by Gavin Knight (Pan Macmillan)
The Negotiator by Ben Lopez (Little, Brown)
Witness by David Smith with Carol Ann Lee (Mainstream)
The Eleventh Day by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (Doubleday)

The CWA Dagger in the Library:
The fifteen authors on the longlist for the Dagger in the Library have now been whittled down to six for our shortlist. They are
Belinda Bauer
S.J. Bolton
Susan Hill
Peter May
Steve Mosby
Imogen Robertson.

The CWA Short Story Dagger:
The Golden Hour by Bernie Crossthwaite, from Guilty Consciences
Hixton by William Kent Krueger, from Crimes by Moonlight
The Message by Margaret Murphy, from Best Eaten Cold
He Did Not Always See Her by Claire Seeber, from Guilty Consciences
A Long Time Dead by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins from The Best American Mystery Stories 2011
Laptop by Cath Staincliffe, from Best Eaten Cold

The CWA Debut Dagger:
Death by Glasgow by Jon Breakfield
Easy to Die by Sean Carpenter
The Watchers by Karen Catalona
One Man Army by Bram E. Gieben
Beached by Sandy Gingras
Trick by Sean Hancock
Broken-Winged Bird by Renata Hill
Death Knell by Rob Lowe
Chasing Shadows by Lesley McLaren
The Wrong Domino by Simon Miller
Message from Panama by Britt Vasarhelyi
Port of Spain by Elizabeth Wells

In addition, Frederick Forsyth will be presented with the Diamond Dagger. The Diamond is awarded to an author whose career has “been marked by sustained excellence” and has “made a significant contribution to crime fiction published in the English language.”

The awards will be announced on July 5th at a CWA dinner in London.

Dr. Emmet Cole  (Bruce Greenwood) has spent his life exploring the world and bringing it back, via his popular television show, to America. But while traveling down the Amazon, he disappeared. After a time, search and rescue efforts were halted and it was assumed he was dead.
 
But after his personal beacon starts to send a signal, hope is raised. Tess, his wife and Lincoln (Joe Anderson) his son , along with a television crew, head down river, in hope of bringing him home. But this is not as simple as it sounds, Lincoln (the son) resents his father for being more devoted to The Undiscovered Country (the show) than to his flesh and blood. He would not be going, but his mother begged him as the network would not fund the expedition without sonny. After all, what good is reality TV without drama? If Mutual OF Omaha’s Wild Kingdom was on today, we would see that Jim hated Carl and was an alcoholic with a fear of monkeys.

RIVER is a mix of mystery, supernatural and horror. And to go too much into what happens would spoil things. But I will say that weird-ass stuff happens and that there are evil spirits and undead. And at the heart of this is a very dysfunctional family. The show is a mix of footage from the voyage down river along with old family recordings of Cole family and footage from Dr. Cole’s Undiscovered Country show. It becomes quite clear that the Cole family has problems and a reunion in a jungle is likely not the cure for what ails them.

Once upon a time, the found footage concept was new and novel (anyone remember BLAIR WITCH?), but everyone is now familiar with it. And while they do a decent job with it here, it is still a cliched approach. Of course, so is almost everything else out there so I will give the show a break.

The cast does a good job, Anderson is the central focus of the show and holds his own. The truth is that in a show like this, you have to establish the personalities quickly or folks won’t care when they get eaten, dismembered, zombified or blown up. The River wastes no time developing the gang, with credit going both to the producers as well as the cast.
 
Is it scary? Eh, not all that much. The style it was shot helps make up for it with startling moments. They do a good job building tension, which is important since there is only so much you can show on TV. I would say it was fun and creepy and I got the feeling that the crew had fun putting this together and did so with gusto. Again, because I got to know the characters well, I was genuinely interested in seeing what happened and how Lincoln would react to seeing his father…if they found him.

Overall, I thought RIVER was hit and miss. But the creativity and style  make up for the shortcomings. Fans of the creepy and supernatural will likely enjoy a voyage down The River.

Jeremy Lynch

To be entered in the drawing shoot an email over to
Jon?@crimespreemag.com (remove the question mark)
And put CONTEST in the subject line.
Also please put your address in the body of the email
We will pick the winners on June 1st

When we do the drawing we will be sending an extra something for one
lucky winner to be picked from the comments section of the Friday Reads
face book page, so after you enter, go leave a comment!

http://www.facebook.com/FridayReads

THE INSIDE RING

The Inside Ring is the first novel in Mike Lawson’s critically acclaimed series of political thriller starring Joe DeMarco, fixer for the Speaker of the House. It opens with an assassination attempt on the president. He is only wounded, but his best friend and a Secret Service Agent are killed. It turns out that the attack wasn’t without warning. General Andrew Banks, the Secretary of Homeland Security, received a note that the president was in danger, and even more alarming, that Secret Service agents guarding the president had been compromised.

General Banks is reluctant to tell the FBI about the note, partly for self-serving political reasons, and partly because he doesn’t want to damage the Secret Service’s reputation based on something that might very well be a hoax. So he requests help from his friend, Speaker Mahoney, and Mahoney assigns his man DeMarco to determine if the Secret Service was really involved. Moving at a breakneck pace, and packed with plenty of humor and suspense, The Inside Ring is a must-read for fans of political thrillers.

THE SECOND PERIMETER

Mike Lawson’s thrillers featuring Joe DeMarco, fixer for John Fitzpatrick Mahoney, the hard-drinking, glad-handing, womanizing speaker of the House, have won him a dedicated following of readers and lots of critical praise. His last two books, House Secrets, and House Justice have increased his readership, with strong reviews (including Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times), several “best of” list mentions, and award nominations.

Originally published by Doubleday in 2006, The Second Perimter was the second novel featuring Joe DeMarco, an average guy frequently tossed into deep waters. Lawson had a thirty-year career in the Navy as a senior civilian. He was a nuclear engineer responsible for their nuclear power program on the west coast. He’s smart, and knows first hand how government works (and doesn’t), and how power plays out in real life.

More than any book in this series, The Second Perimeter draws on Lawson’s background. In The Second Perimeter, when the Secretary of the Navy’s nephew tells him that two colleagues at a U.S. Naval base are committing fraud, he is skeptical. Reluctant to launch an official investigation based on a relative’s vague suspicions, the Secretary asks Mahoney to send his guy DeMarco to check out the story.

As DeMarco and his friend Emma, a semi-retired intelligence agent, begin to investigate what they thought was a low-stakes government swindle, they come to the terrifying realization that an espionage ring has infiltrated the naval base. The leader of the espionage ring is a woman with whom Emma has a history dating back to the Cold War. Their encounter destroyed the other woman’s once promising career and turned her into a ruthless operative who cares about only one thing: destroying Emma. DeMarco has never been near a spy in his life – at least not that he ever knew of – but now he’s mixed up in a deadly conflict with a foreign agent more lethal than anyone he’s ever encountered. Not only is Emma’s life in danger, but Mahoney’s as well.

Michael Lawson
I was raised in Pueblo, Colorado with a passel of brothers and one sister, then attended college at Seattle University and got a degree in engineering. After college, I went to work for the U.S. Navy as a nuclear engineer and spent about thirty years working for the Navy’s nuclear power program. I spent some time in Washington D.C., but most of my career was at a large naval shipyard in Bremerton Washington. At the shipyard I managed a number of different organizations related to overhauling nuclear powered submarines, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. I ended my career as a member of the government’s Senior Executive Service and as the top civilian at the shipyard responsible for navy reactor plant work on the West Coast. The influence of my former career on my writing is discussed briefly in the “Behind the Books” section of this website.

So how’d I go from nuclear engineering to writing? The short answer is I like to write, it’s fun for me, so I tried my hand at it. I tell people if you want to be a writer you need some talent, a lot of persistence, and a whole lot of luck – probably more luck than talent. In 2004, I got very lucky: a fantastic agent liked The Inside Ring and got me a two book deal with a publisher. I’ve subsequently published seven novels and the eighth will be coming out in 2013. After that, who knows?

Regarding my personal life, let’s just leave at: I’m married, live in the Pacific Northwest, and when I’m not writing I mostly just goof around.

Kate: Is it ice cream?!?

D: Not this time, but it is shiny!

K: Really? Gimme!

D: ::hands Kate the foil embossed “Glory Avengelyne” by Rob Liefeld::

K: ::blinks::

D: Well? Pretty cool, right?

K: ::blinks:: It’s…it’s…. shiny… And the boobs? And hair. So much hair. And everyone wears a thong? Is this really a thing? You made this just now, right? This is some kind of gag, RIGHT?

D: No, I didn’t make this up as a gag. You need to know your comics history, so here is a gem from 1995. A time when comics were all about (multiple) foil covers, boobs, and contorted body movements. And leading the charge with the phenomenon was Image Comics, and in this case more directly, superstar writer- artist Rob Liefield.

K: But… but these women wouldn’t be able to stand up if they were real. And “those” wouldn’t be real if these women were real!

D: Seriously.

K: ::snatches comic:: Fine!

…..

K: ::banging head on table:: Oh. My. God. What a steaming, shiny pile! I don’t know where to start.

D: Relax. Let’s just break it down like we normally do. What did you think of the story?

K: There wasn’t one.

D: Don’t be mean. What did you think of the story?

K: THERE WASN’T ONE!

D: ::sigh:: So Glory is a thinly veiled (and scantily clad) Wonder Woman riff. Her psycho mom, who runs around in a French bikini, declares war on Man. Just as she’s about to rally her she-troops, who also wear French bikinis…

K: … a friggin’ angel comes to the rescue!? ::snaps finger:: Ah ha! I got it. Wasn’t 1995 the height of the “sniffing wippits” craze? This mess totally makes sense now.

D: ::mumbles:: That does explain a lot. Anyway, the angel Avengelyne throws down with Glory’s crazy mom, Faith, dressed in a strapless skintight thing with flared bottoms. After a fight that had to have been choreographed by Cinemax ::close-up ASS ASS BOOBS BOOBS:: Psycho mom is banished away.

K: WHO FIGHTS IN THONGS!?! It’s completely impractical!! You can’t kick ass while yours is hanging out! Plus, when you do a high kick, it brings on a Super-Atomic Wedgie. I remember this one time I…

D: Focus, Red. Back to the story. After years of being away, psycho mom returns to avenge her banishment. But we find out that she’s working for a demon that is determined to exact revenge on Avengelyne.

K: Huh. When you put it that way, it sounds like the basis of a pretty wicked story. When in fact it’s impossible to pay attention to whatever story is present due to all the gratuitous skin and freaky body posing. Does this Liefield dude even have one of those wooden human form things that artists use for reference? I mean, look at the cover! Avengelyne’s butt shouldn’t be facing the same direction as her face! Hope she has a good chiropractor…

D: So after the obligatory hero-fights-hero-then-heroes-team-up-against-mutual-foe set up, Avengelyne and Glory battle psycho-mom Glory and her demon partner. ::close-up BOOBS BOOBS ASS ASS:: Good triumphs over evil.

K: Using the Malmon “How much story did I get for my money” scale, where do you think this one ranks?

D: It doesn’t even register. This book is held up by the thinnest story-string I’ve ever seen. It’s just a T&A showcase.

Back in the ‘90’s, the comic industry was in chaos. Image was founded when a group of superstar artists jumped ship from the Big Publishers to found their own company. At the same time, Marvel was in a tailspin due to bad management and almost went bankrupt. The overall vibe was of the stories of the day was “Grim ‘n gritty.”

And as much fun as we’ve been having with this comic, people bought the hell out of it and comics just like it. Image gets a bad rap for this kind of storytelling, but the other companies put out product just like it.

K: People voluntarily bought into the shiny boobs, big hair, and poor storytelling? There were a lot of people doing whippits. ::Looks for a can of Ready Whip::

D: Ahh…no. I don’t think there is enough compressed air to make this shiny, steaming pile any better.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A special note: This review wouldn’t have been possible without a shout-out to our friend Seth. Seth has been a good friend since high school, and when he was culling his comics recently, he gave us first crack and “Glory Avengelyne” ended up on the top of the pile.

We had a lot of snarky-fun with this one, and really, isn’t fun what reading comics is all about? So? A big Thank You, Seth!

K (& D)

In FREAKY DEAKY, Chris Mankowski’s (Billy Burke) first day on the sex crimes unit of the Detroit Police Department does not go well. Not only does he fall for the first person to report an assault to him, he’s suspended for investigating the rich, powerful and completely drunk Woody Ricks (Crispin Glover). Chris takes matters into his own hands – only to discover there are all kinds of people trying to get something – money, revenge, or both from Woody.

The film is set in 1974, a departure from Leonard’s 80s based tale. According to Charlie, it was Elmore himself that suggested the change. The initial draft had it set in modern day, with the characters Eco-terrorists instead of simply former radicals. By moving it back in time, Charlie could use the youth oriented cast he desired and also take advantage of an era of great change and turmoil. The cast includes Glover, Burke, Michael Jai White, Christian Slater, Andy Dick, Breanne Racano and Sabina Gadecki.

Very cool, I am thrilled to see FD finally get a distributor for North America. Charlie has been plugging away at FREAKY DEAKY for over five years. In the time, there have been many changes and setbacks, but Charlie and co kept going and never gave up. Nice to see it take a very big step towards the big screen.

Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games juggernaut will arrive on home entertainment at 12:01 A.M. on Saturday, August 18, as the first film in Lionsgate’s (NYSE: LGF) The Hunger Games franchise, which has already grossed nearly $400 million at the North American box office and is approaching $650 million at the worldwide box office, debuts on 2-disc DVD (plus digital copy), 2-disc Blu-Ray (plus digital copy), VOD and digital download with three hours of previously unavailable bonus materials in the biggest home entertainment launch in Lionsgate’s history, the Company announced today.

The film, based on the New York Times best-selling novel from writer Suzanne Collins, achieved a remarkable four-week run as the #1 film at the North American theatrical box office where it has already grossed $392 million, ranking as the 14th highest-grossing film of all time, and it is approaching $650 million at the worldwide box office with an early June opening slated in China.

The 2-disc Blu-ray and 2-disc DVD arrive loaded with over three hours of extensive bonus materials including the comprehensive eight-part documentary, “The World is Watching: Making of The Hunger Games.” Other special features include a sit-down conversation with director Gary Ross as well as numerous featurettes that examine the global success of the books, the creation of the control room in the film and the filmmakers’ motivation behind creating new scenes that were not in the book plus much more. The Blu-ray Disc set contains an additional exclusive feature, “Preparing for the Games: A Director’s Process,” which looks at the progression of taking three key scenes from the book to the screen. The Hunger Games Blu-ray Disc and DVD is a must-have film that is hailed as “exciting and thought-provoking in a way few adventure dramas ever are” (New York Daily News). Fans will be able to pre-order the Blu-ray Disc and DVD, starting on Friday, May 25th, for $39.99 and $30.98, respectively.

The Hunger Games is the first in a trilogy of books published by Scholastic that has already become a literary phenomenon with over 36.5 million copies in circulation. Set in the future, one male and one female from each of the twelve districts of the nation is forced to participate in the annual competition called The Hunger Games, which is broadcast live throughout the country for the entertainment of the Capitol’s wealthy residents. Sixteen year old Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) volunteers in her younger sister’s place to enter the games, and is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy when she’s pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

BLU-RAY & DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
* “The World is Watching: Making of The Hunger Games” – an eight-part documentary covering the “making of” the film in all aspects from the pre-production process all the way through the theatrical release and fan reactions
* “Game Maker: Suzanne Collins and The Hunger Games Phenomenom” featurette
* “Letters from the Rose Garden” featurette – insights from Donald Sutherland on the development of his role as President Snow
* “Controlling the Games” featurette – stories and concepts behind creating the control center
* “A Conversation with Gary Ross and Elvis Mitchell”
* Propaganda Film (in its entirety)
* Marketing Archive
* “Preparing for The Games: A Director’s Process” (Blu-ray Exclusive)

SpringCon, and its sister event, FallCon, will always be special events for me. These conventions opened my eyes to the comics community here in Minnesota. Until my first convention, comics to me started and finished with my Wednesday visits to the local comic shop. But now you’re telling me that people who actually write and draw this stuff come to MY town?! And you can just… go up and talk to them?

Really? How cool is that?!

At heart, conventions are the same, no matter the genre. A gathering of like-minded fans who organize a gathering where they can celebrate their common hobby. And being able to meet the creators that make their hobby possible? Well, that’s just the greatest thing ever.

Here in Minnesota, the organizers of SpringCon tend to keep a rather local vibe to their convention. With professionals like Dan Jurgens, Peter Krause, and Peter Gross calling the area home, there never is a shortage of drawing power. Our convention also has a strong newspaper strip presence with Jim Keefe of Flash Gordon, and Terry Beatty of The Phantom. This year’s show had a very special guest. Golden Age artist Allen Bellman was there. Mr. Bellman worked on books like Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch. Well into his ‘80’s, Mr. Bellman was engaging and eager to talk to fans of all ages. I was glad of the opportunity to shake his hand.

Minnesota also is doing its part to keep the industry fresh and new. With schools like MCAD (Minneapolis College Of Art And Design) and Rasmussen College producing a new wave of creators every year, both of these schools have quite a presence at the convention.

SpringCon always has a wonderful turnout of cosplayers, fans who dress up as their favorite heroes/villains. For me, these folks really make the event. Just spending time wandering around the convention floor, taking in the sight of these brave folks dressed up in spandex and homemade steampunk just makes me smile. That’s bravery! Good on you, cosplayers. Good on you!
All in all, another great weekend at SpringCon. And we’ll see you all at FallCon!

Dan Malmon

I’ve enjoyed Chuck since Season one, it’s been a clever show and whenever it seemed as if they really couldn’t do much more they changed the game a bit. They’ve brought in great guest stars including Scott Bakula as Chuck’s Dad and Linda Hamilton as his Mom. This last season is no exception.

The season opens with Chuck’s buddy Morgan getting the intercept as the team opens their own security business. However a problem with the intercept causes some problems and what follows is Morgan acting like a jerk, but it’s funny as Hell. The majority of the season is Chuck and Sarah trying to figure out what to do with themselves. As a married couple they don’t really want so much danger in their lives anymore and they are looking for a house and there is even some baby talk. What’s nicely done about this is that it works into the plots and isn’t turning the show in to a romance thing. What it really does, along with the rest of this season is show how important Chuck’s family is to him and that they are all finally excepting what is what and where they are.

The action is driven through most of the 13 episodes by the team chasing after the last intersect and the consequences of that. It brings in an episode in which we discover that Morgan spent a weekend with Bo Derek, any number of rouge CIA agents and ex agents are looking for it and eventually it ends up really damaging the relationship between Chuck and Sarah.

***SPOILERS***

The final episode is great, and I watched the extended version in the special features. It wraps things up for everyone, and of course laves things open just a bit so fans can make their own conclusions or maybe even a movie later. Jeffster gets to perform in front of a large audience and actually help save the day, Morgan finds love, Casey runs off to declare his. Chuck’s sister and Brother in law are off to Chicago for great new jobs. And the government once and for all thinks the intersect is gone. Chuck and Sarah? Our last shot of them leaves it up to the viewer, though I think it all ends happy because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

The special features are nice, a look back at the show, a number of episodes with commentaries, a goodbye piece, and a feature with the cast speculating on the future of the characters.

If you’re a fan of the show as I am I think you will find this last season to be a lot of fun, though I would have liked more episodes, like maybe 45 more……

Jon

In THE WOMAN IN BLACK, from director James Watkins, young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) travels to a remote village to sort through the papers of a recently deceased client. When the locals regard him with fear and hatred, he unearths the dark history of the house and the vengeful spirit that still plagues the town. As tensions build and time begins to run out, Kipps is left to search for a way to end the haunting and put the spirit to rest.

Radcliffe is likeable as the young lawyer, even if it is hard to distance him from his Harry Potter fame, and holds his own as a leading man once again. The rest of the cast performs equally well and add to the building spookiness and sense of inevitable doom. The film holds true to the its origins as a stage play and that seems to be the reason for many of its critiques; The pacing gets weighed down by a surprising amount of walking up and down staircases and back and forth through long (albeit haunted) hallways. It’s likely that some may see the plot as offering little else from the traditional ghost story.

Despite the old-fashioned tones of the plot, the black-clad woman and the creaky, isolated house lose none of their effectiveness as they are utilized to their full, creepy potential. The tension builds throughout, making the slow pacing fantastically tense—even if it is slightly overplayed at times. The unsettling, grim ambiance only adds to the scares and chills, and the quality of the movie keeps it enjoyable for those looking for an alternative to the gore-filled horror movies that often grace today’s silver screens.

Video: THE WOMAN IN BLACK is delivered in 1080p HD with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film has a great gritty, gloomy tone that is no less unnerving than it was on the big screen.

Audio: Sound is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD MA. Subtitles are available in English, English SDH, and Spanish.

Kristen Micek

Based on the characters of NYT best-selling author Tess Gerritsen, RIZZOLI & ISLES features Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles (Sasha Alexander ). While best friends, the two are total opposites: Jane is a tomboy and wears her emotions on her sleeve, while the very stylish Isles is more clinical and looks at situations from a more detatched position.

In the second season, Jane’s ex-con brother Tommy (Colin Egglesfield) shows up and hits it off quite well with Maura, her mother (Lorraine Bracco) struggles with her divorce. Jacqueline Bisset appears as Maura’s adoptive mother while John Doman returns Patrick ‘Paddy’ Doyle, a notorious crime boss that happens to be Maura’s biological father.

The strengths and weaknesses of the show remain the same. Casting is great (I totally see Harmon as Jane) and the chemistry continues to develop and strengthen. Most of the cast do a solid job, with Bracco really shining as a mildy neurotic, naggy mother that just wants what is best for her children…at least what SHE thinks is best.

R&I is your basic episodic series. Each episode features a crime that is generally pretty straight forward and wraps things up by the end of the hour. There is little character development, which is fine if you are looking for familiarity, and only the occasion subplot spanning multiple eps.

Audio: Subtitles are available in English (for the Hearing Impaired), French, Spanish, Japanese and Hebrew.

Extras: The set features a series of featurettes ( In the Room: Writing Rizzoli & Isles, Pre-Production, Production With Rizzoli & Isles, Ready to Air: Post-Production) that cover the process of creating an epsisode. Also featured are Deleted Scenes and a gag reel.

RIZZOLI & ISLES is a television form of comfort food. Nothing changes too much and it certainly does not go in any direction that might upset anyone. But the cast does a nice job with what they have and make this more entertaining than it should be.

Jeremy Lynch