“A complex, high-stakes international thriller packed with larger than life characters and richly depicted European settings—highly entertaining.” That’s what Meg Gardiner, author of Shadowheart and the bestselling Unsub crime series has to say about my new Rōnin Phythian thriller, The Fall Of Vivaldi. In a word, I'm thoroughly astounded and humbled [yes, I can count!], and I feel compelled to share with you the short elevator pitch: One year after shutting down the murder-for-hire outfit known as the Greenwich Global Group, Phythian now is pursuing justice for the victims of his crimes, while seeking vengeance against those who engaged his services over the years. Known the world over for his lethal mental skillset, his unique extrasensory competence still makes him “the deadliest man alive.” Vivaldi drops Tuesday, September 10, and you can pre-order your copy here. I thank you for your indulgence.

—Reed Bunzel

Ten Incredible Spy Movies That

Are Perfect From Start To Finish

     Movies about spies and secret agents have been hitting the large and small screen since the moment each was invented. In most cases these films offer tension, glamour, increasingly risky stakes, treachery, double-and triple crosses, and incredibly story twists—making them ideal for satisfying cinema experiences. As Samuel Murrian noted last week on Collider, “Hitchcock and Bond films dominate the genre, showcasing iconic characters and thrilling narratives. These top spy movies, like Casino Royale and The 39 Steps, deliver flawlessly executed action with comedy, tragedy and romance.”

     There are so many, countless reasons the world of spies and espionage naturally lends itself to satisfying cinema, he continues: “There's the tension that comes with never wanting to be found out, the deadliness and unpredictability of it all, and the increasingly rising stakes. And though some spy films notably take a more grounded approach, it's easy to take these stories in a direction that's glamorous and globe-trotting.”

     Any list of the greatest, most influential, and rewatchable films in the spy genre will naturally heavily feature the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and the historic James Bond franchise. This shouldn't be surprising, as Hitchcock was, by some metrics, the single most prolific director of studio films, and Bond's longevity as a franchise is all but unmatched. But there's a lot more to the spy genre, and this list features what Murrian believes are among the best spy movies of all time, each pretty much flawless from start to finish. Notably missing: Donald Sutherland's ace portrayal of a German spy in The Eye Of The Needle.

What Makes A Good Book-To

Movie Mystery Adaptation?

     There’s no question that the publishing business and the film industry have a longstanding relationship, as many novels and nonfiction titles have been—with varying results—reimagined for the cinema. The upcoming adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club is just the latest in a list of thousands such productions, and each year dozens of books in the crime genre are finding their way to the big and small screens. But…what makes a murder mystery adaptation work well?

     This is the question Elisa Shoenberger recently posed in Murder-Mayhem, offering some critical ways that a mystery book is successfully transferred into another medium—or not:

• Stay True to the Spirit of the Book:  “There’s nothing worse than reading a book and then finding the screen adaptation missed the mark completely,” she says. “I’m still bitter about the film adaptation of the Monuments Men because it added a strange one-sided love story into the film that was not there in the non-fiction book. On the other hand, the A&E adaptation of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe captures the spirit of the books and novellas beautifully.”

• It Shouldn't Be A Straitjacket: While an adaptation needs to be faithful to the tone and characters of the book, it does not need to be a strict interpretation of the original text. Adapting one medium to another will necessitate some changes; books can spend a long time on its characters, plot, and setting, while movies and TV shows don’t have the same luxury. There’s only so much time on the screen.

• Use of Fair Play: A mystery is most fun to solve when the author gives readers a chance to figure it out themselves, over time. Kenneth Branagh's Murder on the Orient Express does a nice job pulling this off. Throughout Poirot’s investigation, the viewers get bits and pieces of clues (and some red herrings) that make it possible for the viewer to figure out whodunnit.

DNA COLD CASE

Suspect Arrested In Murder Of Florida Woman Found Dead 24 Years Ago

     A Florida woman’s brutal killing nearly 25 years ago may finally be solved after authorities arrested a suspect last week, according to the Sanford Police Department. Sherry Holtz, who was 50 at the time of her death, was found dead on December 4, 1999, a day after she was last seen at a local bar. A person collecting cans in the woods discovered Holtz’s body lying on a concrete slab about 20 feet into a line of trees; Holtz’s neck was cut and there were signs of strangulation, blunt force trauma, and sexual battery.

     A lock blade knife was found near her body with blood and other DNA on it, but since the samples were not large enough, it was difficult to perform testing in 2000. Still, investigators preserved the knife and reopened the case in May 2023. Authorities confirmed last month the blood on the knife was Holtz’ and additional DNA on the knife belonged to her longtime boyfriend, Gary Durrance, now 74.

     “Sherry Holtz was brutally murdered and left behind in the woods as if her life had no value,” Sanford police chief Cecil Smith said in a statement. “This was someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. I hope his arrest brings a little comfort to those that loved Sherry and have waited 24 years for this moment.”

Some Underrated Fictional Detectives

Who Deserve A Turn In The Spotlight

     Ask most readers to mention a fictional detective, and the odds are pretty good they’ll mention at least one of the following: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Philip Marlowe, Harry Bosch, or Dave Robicheaux. But there are plenty of other detectives who don’t get as much time in the limelight, although they are well-loved and appreciated by readers of crime fiction. Novel Suspect’s Erin Roll recently took it upon herself to highlight some of these underrated detectives, including:

• Dirk Gently: Douglas Adams gave the world intergalactic hitchhikers, dolphins who can tell when the end of the world is nigh, and build-your-own-planet workshops. But he also created Dirk Gently: a “holistic detective” who sees the connections between all things in life, the universe, and everything to solve life's mysteries.

• George Gently: Not to be confused with Dirk, Inspector George Gently is the creation of novelist Alan Hunter. The forty-six books are set in the east of England, predominantly Norfolk, in the 1960s and 1970s. The books were later adapted into the Inspector George Gently television series starring Martin Shaw.

• Jack Spratt: Yes, this is Jack as in the “Jack Sprat could eat no fat” and, possibly, the same bloke who built the house, climbed the beanstalk, and accomplished any number of other nursery rhyme feats. He is also one of the starring detectives in the Nursery Crimes books by Jasper Fforde, a spinoff from Fforde’s Thursday Next series.

• Jules Maigret: The creation of Belgian-born author Georges Simenon, this powerfully built Parisian detective with a fondness for pipe smoking and a keen interest in psychology made his debut in 1931’s The Strange Adventure of Peter the Lett.

• Jack Connor: Yes, I have to include my own private detective series, which began in 2012 with Palmetto Blood and wrapped up with last year’s Indigo Road. A shameless plug, but that’s what BunzelGram is for.

Lawrence Block Sets Aside Keyboard

For Good. “I’m Retired,” He Says

     Receiving a newsletter from my friend and colleague Lawrence Block is always a cause for celebration, and last week I was pleasantly surprised when another one mysteriously appeared in my inbox after a long hiatus. It’s been a couple years since the mystery grandmaster has published a book—two of them, in 2022—which caused me [and other fans] to wonder if he had set aside the keyboard for good. This latest missive seems to answer that question:

     “I would appear to have retired. I wrote two books in 2022: The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown and The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder, and I was more than happy with both of them, but once they were polished and published, I realized that I was done. I’d spent well over sixty years as a professional writer, and I’m grateful for every day I was able to devote to writing and every book and story I had the good fortune to produce, but that stage of my life was now over. In recent years I’d often suspected that I might be ready to wrap it up, and each time I'd found out I was mistaken, but this was categorically different; for the first time I no longer had the feeling that writing was what I ought to be doing.

     “But what if a really great idea came along? Ideas come along all the time. So what? I feel no obligation to entertain them, let alone act on them. I turned 86 last month. That’s the atomic number of radon, [and] it’s high enough as a human age that one is not hugely surprised when a person claiming it is retired. It’s miracle enough that the old boy is alive at all. I’ve become something of a geriatric gym rat, picking up heavy metal objects and putting them back where I found them. I walk far enough and briskly enough to leave my Fitbit short of breath. I take naps, I listen to music, I watch Nature and Nova and Jeopardy. I’m retired.”

Coming Tuesday, September 10

The Fall Of Vivaldi

On a rainy night across Europe, several seemingly unrelated

incidents unfold in quick order:

• In the City of Light, a beautiful young Parisian newscaster

named Gabrielle Lamoines is brutally murdered in her bed,

just as…

• A disgraced British billionaire takes a dive from the top floor

terrace of a luxury resort on the island of Cyprus, at the same time that…

• Reporter Carter Logan causes the death of a former lieutenant

of the Italian mafia in a narrow street in Rome, not far from…

• The Tuscan farmhouse where Alessandro Bortolotti, the head

of a hard-right neofascist movement, is plotting a deadly

attack on the G20 global summit, while…

• A notorious Russian oligarch named Georgy Sokolov plans to

auction off a kidnapped American teen named Abby Evans in

an online event streamed from his villa on the island of Ibiza.

Each of these random events has one thing in common: Retired assassin Ronin Phythian, once known as “the most dangerous man alive”...