John le Carré’s George Smiley Gets Cast
It’s time for a new round of “what’s happening that mystery fans would want to know!” I’ve got a podcast, adaptation news, a true crime update, and a mystery author’s personal library!
The Origins of Me Too
Monica Lewinsky started 2025 by hosting a new podcast, Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky. Her sixth episode is a conversation with Tarana Burke, the activist who started the Me Too movement and the author of Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement.
Burke also has a book she co-wrote with Brené Brown, You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience.
George Smiley Has Been Cast
John le Carré fans will recognize the character name George Smiley from his spy series that begins with Call for the Dead. Now a TV adaptation series is in the works–—sharing the title with the final book in the series, A Legacy of Spies—and the lead has been cast: “Emmy winner Matthew Macfadyen (Succession) is attached to star as George Smiley in Legacy Of Spies.”
If You Are From a Certain Generation, This Film Might be Seared into Your Brain
In the early ‘90s John Lutz’s psychological thriller Single White Female was adapted into a film starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and made a whole generation look differently at spiky high heels. Now, “…Sony and Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures are reviving the intra-apartment friction with Jenna Ortega and Taylor Russell in negotiations to star in a remake.”
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The Perfect Couple Adaptation is Now a Series
The Perfect Couple was adapted by Netflix with a great cast and offered plenty of tropes for domestic thriller fans. Netflix, knowing to keep the success train going, is now going to adapt the book that follows The Perfect Couple in the Nantucket series, Swan Song. Being that the series doesn’t follow the same characters, we’ll be getting new casting, though Nicole Kidman will return as producer.
Elections Matter
Last year, following the discovery of new evidence, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón supported a sentence reduction for Erik and Lyle Menendez that would have opened the door for them to be eligible for parole. But Nathan Hochman became the DA after November’s election and he withdrew Gascón’s request. Now, as of me writing this, the Menendez brothers’ family is literally rallying against the new DA and speaking up. “We won’t let him rewrite history,” said a cousin of the brothers of Hochman.
Crime Writers for Trans Rights 2025
The current hatred towards trans people—centering trans children—is hateful, horrific, and deeply concerning on many fronts, including grown adults obsessions with other people’s genitals and the escalation of violence targeted at a community. Rather than watching the horrors and feeling helpless, a group of crime writers partnered up with the Transgender Law Center for the Crime Writers for Trans Rights 2025 auction. “From March 26 through April 1, 2025, you can bid on a wonderful range of items, including from some of the most celebrated voices in crime and crime-adjacent fiction, with all proceeds given to the Transgender Law Center to help further their important work.” Just to note a couple items: a signed copy of Gone Girl and you can name a character in Lisa Gardner’s 2026 thriller!
If the auction has closed by the time you’re reading this, you can always donate directly to the Transgender Law Center, subscribe to a trans writer’s newsletter or podcast, or directly help any of the wonderful organizations, like the Trans Youth Emergency Project, at the forefront of protecting trans people.
I Love Seeing an Author’s Book Collection
I love tours, personal libraries, and Walter Mosley, who always gives great interviews and chats. So this article felt personally written for me: Walter Mosley’s favorites? That’s easy.
Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf. See upcoming 2025 releases, and mysteries from 2024 and 2023. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations! Until next time, keep investigating! In the meantime, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Goodreads, Litsy, and Substack.
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