2021 ThrillerFest Will Be A

Virtual Event Again In 2021

In a statement sent to the organization’s members, International Thriller Writers Co-Presidents Heather Graham and Gregg Hurwitz announced, “Although we’re eager to gather in person again, we want to do so when it’s safe for everyone. The Grand Hyatt is still physically closed and most of the staff has been furloughed. With the COVID numbers spiking in New York City, we have no idea when it will re-open, so we made the difficult decision to remain virtual for another year. Our ThrillerFest team is already hard at work to create a spectacular event.” They also revealed that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, ThrillerFest 2022 will be held from May 31-June 4, 2022 at the Sheraton Hotel. Meanwhile, writers are encouraged to sign up for Winter Thrills, ITW’s first wintertime event scheduled January 11 through March 18, 2021.

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:

A Holiday Thriller For The Ages

While most of us watch at least one version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a holiday tradition, we often forget that the original novella was a soul-wrenching thriller that has gripped readers from the time it appeared in print almost 180 years ago. Originally published on December 19, 1843 by London’s Chapman & Hall, the entire first run of 6,000 copies—priced at five schillings (£25 in 2020 prices)—sold out by Christmas Eve. Those first fans were both stirred and shaken by the story of the ornery tightwad Ebenezer Scrooge who found himself visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley, his former business partner whose own miserly ways doomed him to purgatory in the afterlife. Countless scholars have critiqued the story and its various humanistic themes, but Bloodthirsty’s Megan Navarro gets right to the heart of its identity as a thriller: “Bound by chains and heavy money boxes forged by greed during life, Marley is cursed to wander the Earth for eternity,” she writes. “[His] ghastly sight serves up the dual purpose of offering the first ghoulish jolt of the story and an ominous warning of where Scrooge could wind up if he doesn’t change his ways.” Pitting the vices of malignant self-interest against the virtues of self-redemption—played out against the backdrop of death—Dickens’ tale is driven by the allegorical characters of Want and Ignorance (and the heart-wrenching Tiny Tim), underscored by the possibility that it’s never too late to change one’s avaricious ways. [Personal note: Of all the film versions of A Christmas Carol I've seen, my favorite is the one starring George C. Scott, David Warner, and Edward Woodward. Click here to view the trailer.]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:

Best Office Xmas Party Ever Filmed?

In a year when Christmas has been all but cancelled (especially in the U.K.), many of us look back fondly (or not) on holiday office parties of the past. Such festivities are found in numerous films that invoke the Christmas spirit, but none—at least according to writer Dwyer Murphy—is filmed with more provocation or purpose than the sequence found in the 2011 film adaptation of John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. “It's just like your old office holiday parties except everyone's a spy, everyone's cheating, and a new world order is at stake,” he says. “Actually composed of three scenes, each one presents a different moment of the party, full of half-drunk plastic cups, decorative tissue paper, and spies. You could watch it a hundred times and notice something new every go around. A side character in a tellingly festive turtleneck or a whisper into somebody’s ear. This is spy craft, and spy fiction, at its most intimate. The world may be sordid and ugly but it’s one we want to spend time in. There’s an irresistible romance to all that deception. We keep coming back for it again and again, making the same mistakes, trapped in this long limbo of office Christmas parties we call life.”

TRUE CRIME

Long Island Serial Killer May

Have Hunted Victims Online

Ten years ago this month, New York City was rocked by stories about a serial killer who was discarding the remains of his victims along Long Island’s scenic Ocean Parkway. The discoveries terrified the surrounding affluent communities as ten bodies eventually were found, but a decade later authorities seem no closer to arresting a suspect. The first four victims were identified as sex workers who had advertised on Craigslist, and the Suffolk County Police Department—one of the largest and highest paid forces in the country—was tasked with finding the killer (or killers). Early in 2011 six more sets of remains were found along the same parkway, including the bones of a toddler believed to belong to one of the other victims. As CBS correspondent Erin Moriarty noted in a 48 Hours report earlier this month, the women may not have been chosen at random. In fact, Dominick Varrone, chief of detectives at the time, says he believes their killer took his time scrolling through online ads to find and target a particular type of woman. Watch the full episode on CBS here.

COLD CASE

DNA Leads To Arrest Of Suspect In

1999 Murder Of Flight Attendant

Once again, advances in DNA science has led authorities to solve a decades-old murder case. This time, authorities in Illinois announced they arrested Luis Rodriguez-Mena in connection with the 1999 slaying of Young Kavila, a 30-year-old flight attendant who was killed inside her apartment in Des Plaines. She was stabbed to death, and her roommate discovered her body upon returning to the apartment they shared. Mena, who lived in a nearby apartment, had been identified early on as a suspect, but officials say he fled to Mexico shortly after the killing. Authorities said they received a tip a decade ago that Mena had a son who was living in Illinois, and a DNA swab confirmed that Mena’s DNA matched that recovered at the scene. "This DNA profile was compared through the Illinois State Police forensics laboratory to blood evidence at the scene and came up as a 99.98% match," Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner announced at a press conference earlier this month. Rodriguez-Mena is being held without bond on three counts of first-degree murder.

COMING IN FEBRUARY

“Raw, irreverent, and witty, Reed Bunzel’s story of a tattooed war vet turned temporary private eye snaps, crackles, and pops with authenticity. War-tested, street smart, and sassy, Jack Connor is someone you want with you in a foxhole or the bloody back roads of South Carolina.”

—Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, bestselling author of Blink Of An Eye and Dragon Fire