Mystery News Round-Up

Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon

Sometimes being Canadian feels ironic. There’s a new TV adaptation of American crime writer Nevada Barr’s series that features a Canadian actor, Tracy Spiridakos, as park ranger Anna Pigeon. It’s for the USA Network, and their trailer isn’t available to view in Canada, but it’s also posted on Rotten Tomatoes and looks promising. Spiridakos, after a start in Canadian children’s TV, has built an impressive career in the U.S., including several years on Chicago P.D.

I’m watching the Martin Short documentary (made for Netflix: do they get any Can Con credit for it?), and it’s striking how many more opportunities there seemed to be for Canadian actors in the 1970s. Short is, of course, preternaturally gifted, but his comedy trajectory would be difficult to replicate today.

Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot

The BBC, in their wisdom, are re-launching a Poirot TV adaptation that they anticipate will run for at least three years:

“The BBC project will see Benji Walters (Obsession) pen the script, as sources say he has breathed new life into the fictional Belgian detective. However, script details are currently being kept under wraps.“

Now they’re seeking to cast a perfect Poirot, and I do hope David Suchet is getting some pleasure out of knowing that he was the definitive Poirot. That being said: perhaps it’s time to break out of Christie’s mould a bit? The contemporary Christie adaptations have brought some welcome racial diversity in casting.

And we can perhaps anticipate that the Belgian detective will be nattily dressed. Here’s a sartorial profile of the screenwriter, via the clothier Paul Smith, for your amusement.

But Walters’s back story is fascinating:

“It’s not often as a journalist that you walk into a sterile press junket and walk out feeling that your life may have changed forever. 

That was the experience of Benji Walters, who had a sliding doors encounter with Luca Guadagnino in 2016, when the feted Call Me by Your Name director was on the promotion trail for A Bigger Splash. 

Walters had arrived to conduct a straightforward interview for UK lifestyle magazine Wonderland, but was instead propelled into the world of screenwriting by a captivated Guadagnino.”

Wait, what?

And he was apparently a recent college grad. He then spent a few years working with Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name), including attempting a remake of Brideshead Revisited that wasn’t green-lighted because of cost.

I do not understand how the world of screenwriting works, but I am working up a long piece on Jessica Knott’s forthcoming novel, which is about a plucky (and very unlucky) female screenwriter skilled at working a room.

Bouchercon News

Speaking of rooms. Calgary hotel space is filling up, so if you want to attend a big international (but really American) mystery writing convention with a rare Canadian setting this fall, make haste.

I’m looking forward to attending.

The Guests of Honour are exceptional: Louise Penny, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award; Kathy Reichs, as Cross-Border Guest of Honour (and who better, given that her novels flit across the Canada-U.S. border?); and the wonderful Scottish writer Abir Mukherjee as International Guest of Honour. Mukherjee now lives in England and his books are set in colonial-era India. I’m also looking forward to seeing Cozy Guest of Honour Vicky Delany, a Canadian woman crime writer who is exceptionally prolific.

Bouchercon was held in Toronto twice: 1992 and 2004; I attended the latter, and a memorable session featured the late Peter Robinson, of Inspector Banks fame, in conversation with (not yet Sir) Ian Rankin. They toasted each other with whisky and had a cozy chat that the audience was privileged to overhear, and it was just perfect.

Bloody Scotland News

And on the topic of Scottish mystery fiction, Denise Mina has been carefully doling out, this year’s honorary programmer, has been doling out information about the Stirling-set crime fiction festival that takes place annually in September. She’ll present several outstanding international crime writers, including Tana French and S.A. Cosby.

In Val McDermid’s recent novel, Mina gets a brief and memorable mention. Seeing her in a café-bookstore in Stirling last year was a thrill. And as McDermid has described, this is a very friendly and accessible crime fiction festival. Stirling is compact, and the Castle is worth seeing. Highly recommend.

MOTIVE

And before either of these gatherings, Toronto’s MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival is on early next month. Lots of terrific guests, including Sujata Massey, Uzma Jalaluddin and Shari Lapena; a writing masterclass with Maureen Jennings; and a murder mystery dinner promisingly titled The Codfather.