ITW Announces This Year’s Thriller Awards

International Thriller Writers announced the winners of its annual Thriller Awards at a banquet at the Sheraton Times Square in New York this past Saturday night. The winners are:

• Best Hardcover Novel: S.A. Cosby, All The Sinners Bleed [Flatiron Books]

• Best First Novel: I.S. Berry, The Peacock and the Sparrow [Atria]

• Best Paperback Original: Luke Dumas, The Paleontologist [Atria]

• Best E-Book Original: Robert Swartwood, The Killing Room [Blackstone Publishing]

• Best Young Adult Novel: Elizabeth Wein, Stateless [Little, Brown & Co.]

• Best Short Story: Lisa Unger, “Unknown Caller” [Amazon Original Stories]

• Best Audiobook: Gregg Hurwitz, The Last Orphan [Macmillan], Narrated by Scott Brick

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees.

Felonious Fictitious Presidents In

American Film and Television

I’m usually hesitant to mention anything blatantly political, but an article by Olivia Rutigliano in Crime Reads last week gave legitimacy to what I was wondering: how many presidents in film or TV shows have committed felonies? Given the courtroom developments in New York last week—during ThrillerFest, no less—the piece was particularly timely and, I highly suspect, not coincidental. Adhering strictly to political thrillers and excluding such satires as Wag The Dog or Canadian Bacon, or dark action films like Escape From New York [and L.A.], she created a short list that fit the bill. Here are but a few:

• President Fitzgerald Grant III, Scandal: Tony Goldwyn’s President Fitz went below-and-beyond the call of duty many times, from shady dealings to literally smothering a Supreme Court Justice with his bare hands.

• President Alan Richmond, Absolute Power: In this 1997 Clint Eastwood film, screen-written by William Goldman and based on the novel by David Baldacci, Gene Hackman plays U.S. President Alan Richmond, who, after a woman rejects his insistent sexual advances and defends herself, permits the Secret Service to kill her, and then helps cover up the murder.

• President Robert Diaz, The Blacklist: While he’s running for office, Benito Martinez’s Robert Diaz kills a teenager in a hit-and-run and proceeds to cover it up. He also blackmails, and conspires with the Secret Service to have his wife murdered.

• President Charles Logan, 24: Gregory Itzin plays Charles Logan, one of the major antagonists in the 24-verse. A former Vice President-turned-President, he ushers the U.S. government into an enormous web of corruption.

COLD CASE SOLVED

Alleged Child Rapist Caught After 33

Years Using Family Tree Technique

     Police in Australia were able to arrest an alleged child rapist last week after almost 33 years thanks to groundbreaking investigative techniques using DNA to build a family tree of the suspect. Gavin Jeffery Durbridge, age 54, appeared in court Tuesday on a count of deprivation of liberty and two counts of aggravated sexual assault in relation to an alleged 1991 attack on a 13-year-old boy.

     The alleged assault took place on Oct. 25, 1991, when the young boy was riding his bicycle in the Carine Open Space—a park and recreation area in a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Authorities say the boy—who has not been named—was traveling to a friend’s house when he was confronted by a man who allegedly threatened the child with a knife before restraining and assaulting him. The boy immediately informed police about the incident and a swab was taken from his clothing, which was stored for the last 33 years.

     “New investigative techniques using genetic genealogy coupled with good old-fashioned detective work led to the result we have today,” Chloe White of the Western Australia Police Force told reporters. She went on to say that an investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) team “became involved in this case earlier this year and their research led to a family tree of nearly three-and-a-half thousand people being identified.” Such techniques were famously used to catch Joseph James DeAngelo, the so-called Golden State Killer who pleaded guilty in 2020 to a string of murders and kidnappings in California in the 1970s and 1980s.

Classic Thriller Vertigo Contains A Plot

Hole That Even Bothered Hitchcock

     An important thing to keep in mind when evaluating any work of art is that the audience and critical response can change considerably over the years. As recently noted by Slash Film, such is the case with Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo, which today is now recognized as a dark and provocative film, one with a lot of fascinating things to say about love and obsession. It's also a remarkably well-directed movie; every single cinematic choice—such as filming the driving scenes so Scottie [James Stewart] is almost always going downhill, never up—contributes to the sense that he is descending towards his doom.

     Still, at the time of its release, Vertigo received mixed reviews and had a disappointing run at the box office. Critics declared the film's big twist to be nonsensical, and Hitchcock himself seemed to agree with this, at least during a 1969 interview where he expressed regret about how one element was handled. His concern was over the details of the movie's big twist wherein Madeleine [Kim Novak], whom Scottie's been tasked with investigating, is actually an actor named Judy—also played by Novak. In a far-fetched and highly contrived murder plot, the “a-ha” moment comes when Scottie is unable to chase Judy up a set of stairs in time to witness the “big reveal”—which Hitchcock himself realized was a big problem.

     "The husband was planning to throw his wife down from the top of the tower," Hitchcock later said. "But how could he know that James Stewart wouldn't make it up those stairs? Because he became dizzy? How could he be sure of that!?" It’s a good point, but most modern critics are willing to give it a pass, arguing it doesn’t really matter because a few lapses in realism are beside the point.

Why Cheese Is The Most

Stolen Food On The Planet

     In London on Tuesday, 4 September, 1666, Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he buried his wine and his “parmazan cheese' in his garden, to protect both from the Great Fire of London that was rapidly approaching his house. It was estimated that the cheese would have cost him several months' salary, so it's not surprising he wanted it saved from flames or looting. Parmigiano Reggiano may not be quite as precious today as it was back in 17th-century England, but it's still prone to being looted. That's why there are an estimated 300,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, worth around $200 million, being kept securely in Italian bank vaults.

     According to the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano, the official body governing Italy's parmesan makers, over $3 million in parmesan cheese is stolen in Italy every year. It's not only warehouses that get robbed, either. Gangs also target small, artisanal parmesan-makers and farmers, knowing their security systems are easier to beat. As parmesan has to be aged for at least a year before it can be called parmesan, and some are aged 2-3 years, that means a lot of wheels are being stored all over northern Italy at any one time.

      Like fine wines and rare whiskeys, parmesan wheels only increase in value as they age, making them desirable targets for thieves and gangs. According to Time magazine, cheese is the most stolen food on earth. And it’s not just Italy that’s involved in these thefts, as the website Cheese Professor reveals in this list of the top five cheese heists around the world.

Now Available!

Beyond All Doubt

[Reed Bunzel writing as Hilton Reed]

“Beyond All Doubt is an edge-of-your-seat fast-moving thrill-ride, kicked off by the reappearance of a dead man and propelling the reader along to the final bullet—and beyond.”— S.J. Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors of New York

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“Beyond All Doubt is a taut, smart, and emotionally rich thriller. Reed has a sharp eye for character and a screenwriter's feel for action. This tale is sleek as a mink and fast as a bullet.”— T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Rescue

“Beyond All Doubt is not a 'who done it,' but a twisty, compelling 'who did what.' Cameron Kane is a sympathetic, yet unrelenting bulldog in his pursuit of the truth about his wife's death. Intriguing and intense, Beyond All Doubt is a winner!”—Matt Coyle, bestselling author of the Rick Cahill crime novels

“In this action-packed and engrossing thriller, Reed masterfully balances between a husband’s drive to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and a father’s instinct to protect his family at all costs. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down!”— Matthew Farrell, bestselling author of The Woman at Number 6

“Beyond All Doubt has plenty of thrills—deadly snipers, false identities, shocking deaths—but at its heart, this book is about a grieving single father whose desperation propels the plot like a speeding car with its brake lines cut.”— Cayce Osborne, author of I Know What You Did