Southern Films that have influenced my Quinn Colson books by Ace Aktins 1. Deliverance – The film of the James Dickey novel is the quintessential trip into the Southern heart of darkness. I paid homage to the scenes with Burt Reynolds and his crossbow in the first Quinn book, “The Ranger.” We also learn Quinn’s father was a longtime stuntman for Burt. 2. Smokey and the Bandit – While we’re discussing Burt, how about my all-time favorite Southern movie? Although my vision of the South is darker and much grittier than the 1976 comedy, the 1970s landscape and feel of the South comes straight out of my youth....

Wow. THR has reported that Edgar Award winner Dennis Lehane will adapt John D. MacDonald’s THE DEEP BLUE GOODBYE for the big screen. The film, which will simply be called TRAVIS MCGEE, will star Leonardo DiCaprio is slated to play the title role. Travis is a former navy man that lives on a houseboat (the Busted Flush) and acts as a “salvage consultant” and helps folks out for a large fee. He is described as a “knight in slightly tarnished armor” and usually ended up aiding a lovely lady. TDBG was publshed in 1964 and was the first of 21 books to featuring McGee. It seems certain that Fox is hoping this will become a new franchise....

From Crimespree 21 Where the Ideas Come From By Gabriel Cohen Whenever I attend an author talk, the audience always seems fascinated by the process of writing. Do you write every day? they ask. How many hours? Perhaps the most popular question, though, is Where do you get your ideas? Every act of writing begins with a snowy field, the enormously vague white space of a blank page. Into that field a writer can put anything: drop a dead body there, and you may be starting a mystery; drop an unhappy family there and you may be sledding off into a Russian tragedy. So how do writers get those initial ideas? Sometimes, they just seem to drop out...

Guillermo del Toro’s latest is looking pretty fun. When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju. On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes—a washed up former pilot...

Fantasy—ripped from today’s headlines By Robert Liparulo I like stories that surprise me, show me things I’ve never seen before, and get me playing make-believe like I haven’t done since selling my G.I. Joes and Legos at a garage sale. Few tales are as make-believe (or as fun) as fantasy fiction—from the “light fantasy” of alternate histories and time travel to the hardcore stuff involving space odysseys and dragons. The trouble is I’m a skeptic, a hard sell. For a story to grab me, no matter how far-fetched it’s supposed to be, I have to see and feel things I recognize, things I relate to. Sounds like common sense, but as a voracious...

Crimespree pal Steve Ulfelder is on the road in promotion of  SHOTGUN LULLABY , the first book in his Conway Sax series. Take a gander and see if he is coming to a store near you. Conway Sax is a man seeking redemption. A man with a deeply checkered past currently paying for his sins by helping Gus Biletnikov stay sober. Wise-ass Gus, son of a wealthy investment banker, drives Conway nuts. But he also reminds him of his own estranged son, and so Conway finds himself deeply invested in his wellbeing. When a brutal triple-murder takes place in Gus’s halfway house, Conway suspects Gus was the intended victim, and resolves to find the...

On June 30th, we start the beginning of the end. The season eight premiere of Dexter airs 9PM ET/PT on Showtime.

This week , in conjunction with Friday Reads Facebook page, we are giving away copies Chelsea Cain’s KILL YOU TWICE audiobook,  Dana Cameron’s SEVEN KINDS OF HELL ,  Manuel Ramos’ DESPERADO and Daniel Stashower’s THE HOUR OF PERIL audiobook. KILL YOU TWICE (audiobook) by Chelsea Cain Nothing makes Portland detective Archie Sheridan happier than knowing that Gretchen Lowell—the serial killer whose stunning beauty is belied by the gruesome murders she’s committed—is locked away in a psych ward. Archie can finally heal from the near-fatal physical and emotional wounds she’s inflicted on him and start moving...

Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci’s Elmore Leonard based pilot has a new name: THE ARRANGEMENT. The pilot is based on the story WHEN THE WOMEN COME OUT TO DANCE. THE ARRANGEMENT tells the story of Lourdes Nieves (Stephanie Sigman, “Miss Bala”), a Columbian woman who trades her tragic and mysterious past for a fresh start in Miami by entering into a marriage with Billy Whitley (Bryan Greenberg, “How to Make It In America”), a well-meaning and ambitious politician. In a union of political expediency, Lourdes and Billy manage a delicate dance of romance and clear-eyed pragmatism as she leverages her experience and contacts to help her...

Season two begins, on A&E, on May 27th at 9 pm CST.