Rapid-Fire Crime Hits

Today’s collection of crime-fiction-related news items that don’t justify posts of their own, but may be of interest to readers:

• The British TV crime drama Grace, starring John Simm and Richie Campbell, and based on Peter James’ popular series about Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, has been renewed for a fifth season. Meanwhile, a second ITV show, Professor T, featuring Ben Miller, has won a fourth season, even before its third is broadcast.

• And did I mention previously that the HBO-TV anthology drama True Detective, having recently completed the airing of its fourth series, Night Country (starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis), has been re-upped for a fifth run? The Hollywood Reporter adds that “Night Country showrunner Issa López has signed an overall deal with the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cabler and will return to steer the fifth season after taking over the franchise from creator Nic Pizzolatto.”

• We’re nearing the March 4 premiere of Dark City: The Cleaner, a TV thriller set in Christchurch, New Zealand, and based on a 2006 novel by Paul Cleave. Sadly, it isn’t yet available to U.S. viewers.

• Meryl Streep will reprise her role as actress Loretta Durkin in Season 4 of the Hulu mystery-comedy streaming series Only Murders in the Building. Eva Longoria has joined the cast as well.

• Entries are now being accepted in Great Britain’s 2025 Crime Writers’ Association Dagger awards competition. Submission guidelines can be found here.

• R.I.P., Anne Whitefield. She portrayed Dean Jagger’s daughter in the 1954 film White Christmas, and later went on to appear in The Thin Man, Peter Gunn, Hawaiian Eye, Ironside, Adam-12, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and numerous other TV shows before leaving Hollywood to become “a steward for Clean Water at the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology.” Whitefield died on February 15 at age 85.

• Also recently deceased, according to The Hollywood Reporter: “Charles Dierkop, the busy character actor who played tough guys in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and the 1970s Angie Dickinson series Police Woman …” He was 87 years old when he perished on February 25.

• Author, critic, and blogger Michael Hadley looks back at legendary TV producer Quinn Martin (Cannon, The Streets of San Francisco, Barnaby Jones, etc.) in this video interview hosted by Dan Schneider.

• Mike Ripley’s latest “Ripster Revivals” column for Shots focuses on “the influence of World War II on British thriller writers.”

• Finally, congratulations to indie crime publisher Crippen & Landru on its 30th anniversary in business. B.V. Lawson, Martin Edwards, and Lesa Holstine all celebrate this milestone in their blogs.