I know that several authors have kept up the franchise sine Fleming’s death in 1964.

That’s what happens when you write a successful series. The publishers are bound and determined that it will live on long after your death.

Jeffery Deaver; photo by Jerry Bauer

Just ask Robert Ludlum or Lawrence Sanders. Oh, wait. You can’t. They also have passed away but their series live on.

Still, the recent news that Jeffrey Deaver, author of more than 26 books including his series about criminalist Lincoln Rhyme intrigues me.  (Deaver’s latest Rhyme novel is The Burning Wire.)

Deaver’s novels deal with more gore and violence than does the Bond series, which, when it began, was known for its gore and violence that seems so tame by today’s standards.

Deaver knows how to inspire terror – from a cab ride to switching on a lamp. His Bond surely won’t be the Bond we grew up with. Deaver also knows how to make entertaining books, so maybe his Bond will still be the Bond we grew up with. 

Deaver also writes a darn good short story, one of my favorite is Triangle in his collection Twisted.  In this short story, Deaver lulls the reader into a false view of what is going on until the last sentence changes everything.

My colleague and friend, Chauncey Mabe, poses the question of Bond’s relevance on his blog for the Florida Center for the Literary Arts.

What do you think of Deaver taking over the James Bond franchise?

When it comes to crime drama, whether it’s movies or television, let me throw one name out at you.

Idris Elba.

Oh, come on, you know who he is.

Most of us first became aware of the British actor Idris Elba when he played Russell “Stringer” Bell in HBO’s brilliant series The Wire.

Each time he was onscreen, Elba showed the complex personality of Stringer Bell – ruthless, compassionate, uncaring, loyal friend, murderous, streetwise, book smart, intelligent, dimwitted.

A drug dealer by trade, he was a businessman at heart, taking classes to better understand how an industry grows into an empire.

He could order – or commit – a murder without blinking an eye.

One could believe he truly cared about his best friend and partner Avon Barksdale and yet also be willing to kill him without hesitation.

I also have to add that Idris Elba is one sexy, handsome man.

He’s currently in the feeble Obsessed, a Fatal Attraction knock-off that disappoints on so many levels, except for Elba.

In Obsessed, Elba’s character Derek Charles is married with child to Beyonce Knowles but being stalked by the unstoppable Ali Larter (Heroes).

The plot never works and the twists are predictable. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve seen the movie.

But the cast makes Obsessed almost watchable, especially Elba.

Elba’s complicated charisma seems to show in just about every role he takes. His turn as crime boss Charlie Gotso in HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was a chilling piece of acting.

Elba made Gotso almost sympathetic at first but within seconds the crime boss’ dark heart was obvious.

Even Elba’s recent role as Charles Miner on the NBC comedy The Office showed a touch of malice. As Michael Scott’s new boss, Charles Miner was not going to suffer fools.

Elba could easily be the next face of crime drama.

Should Hollywood ever decide to film more of Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins novels, Elba could easily fit in that role, taking over from Denzel Washington. While I liked Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress, but he is getting a little too old to play the Easy of the earlier novels.

(By the way, Elba had a role in Washington’s American Gangster.)

I could certainly see Elba taking over as Lincoln Rhyme from the Jeffrey Deaver‘s novels, should that series ever be filmed again.

Yeah, that would mean Elba would be taking over another of Denzel Washington’s roles. But the Academy Award winning actor doesn’t seem to lack for roles.

But I also could see Elba in myriad roles. Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme wasn’t originally written as an African-American. But Washington was so perfect for the role that race didn’t matter. And frankly, race should not matter. Cast Elba because he is a good actor and can do just about any role.

Let Matt Damon have the franchise on action films.

Just give us Elba for the intelligent crime dramas.

HBO photo

Police deputy Brynn McKenzie is tired, hungry, and glad to be home after a long shift, but when Sheriff Tom Dahl calls her to check out a 911 call from an isolated vacation house near Lake Mondac, she’s eager to go. The drive through the dense forest of Marquette State Park is long and lonely. On the way, the sheriff radios back that the call was a mistake—the cell phone owner had called back saying he and his wife were fine—but Brynn, a specialist in domestic violence cases, decides to make sure.

Silence greets her at the house. No one answers the doorbell and when she tries the door, it swings open. Pushing inside, she sees the contents of a briefcase and backpack spilled across the floor. Nearby, a couple lie face down in a spreading pool of blood. Before she can retrieve her cell phone from the car, Brynn hears whispers and realizes the killers haven’t left. What follows is a night of nonstop, terrifying flight and pursuit, death and survival where Brynn’s training, endurance and wits are tested.

A master of suspense, Deaver throws his protagonist (and his villains) into one impossible situation after another, upping the stakes and building the tension. Bodies rushes into high-speed action, cutting away only briefly for subplot or back story. Unfortunately, after the thrill ride of the chase with its jaw-dropping plot twists, the murder investigation wrap-up seems abrupt, anticlimactic and may leave some readers feeling cheated. But does Deputy Brynn McKenzie have the potential to be a new series character for Deaver? She certainly has promise.