A ceramic skull, grinning at visitors from a side table in the entry hall, offers a clue to the identity of the former owner of this grand home perched above the banks of the River Dart in Devon. You don’t need Hercule Poirot’s little grey cells or the observational skills of Jan … | Continue reading
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Juliet Grames, The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia (Knopf) “As a mystery, Grames’s novel is as gripping as they come; it’s also a deeply satisfying character study of an outsider learning more about a place … | Continue reading
Out of the ashes rose the … Edgar. In 2021, Meg Gardiner’s Austin home was destroyed by a fire that spared lives while consuming nearly everything else in its path. Though the flames were eventually extinguished, the house was a complete loss, as were the majority of the things c … | Continue reading
Historical mystery with its portrayal of life in another time and place has long been one of the most popular subgenres of crime fiction. From ancient Rome and medieval monasteries to the pre-Civil War South, the foggy streets of Victorian London, and the trenches of WW1, readers … | Continue reading
America’s serial killer obsession is bottomless, a seedy fixation with inexplicable horror. It often glorifies murderers in its attempts to psychologize those who kill without any discernable motive, and to draw comfortingly clear lines between good and evil. This obsession was a … | Continue reading
In the world famous test of visual attention designed by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, an off-camera voice instructs participants to watch a short video of a group of students playing basketball, during which they must count the number of times the players in the white s … | Continue reading
Not since Allan Sherman first sang “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah” have tales of summer camp woes been quite so entertaining. While regular summer camp can be annoying—heat rashes, ant piles, wild pigs, impossible beauty standards, line dancing, and whatever nastiness lies at the bo … | Continue reading
Over the Christmas season in 1938, as the world glumly slouched toward war, Welsh author Howard Spring, book reviewer for the London Evening Standard, decided that he would relax by reading a couple of English crime novels. Heartily disliking both of the books—a detective story b … | Continue reading
The CrimeReads editors make their selections for the best debut novels in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Donyae Coles, Midnight Rooms (Amistad) Never. Eat. What. The. Fairies. Give. You. Especially if it’s as disgusting as what’s consumed at the wedding feast in this atmospheri … | Continue reading
If asked to pitch my debut contemporary fiction novel, The Confidence Games, I usually say something like: “Think Ocean’s 8 meets a modern day Thelma and Louise”. In the book, best friends Emma and Nellie, who adhere to only two rules—they will only swindle men, and only ones who … | Continue reading
I’ve always been obsessed with houses: their different shapes and colors; layouts that couldn’t be seen from the curb. Maybe this curiosity started because I grew up in a boxy two bedroom apartment in Queens, NYC. Or because the very first chapter book I read was Nancy Drew’s The … | Continue reading
Atmosphere is a hugely important part of crafting suspense fiction, conjuring mood and emotion for a reader and contributing to the reading experience in so many ways. The right atmosphere can fully immerse a reader in the world you’ve created, both toying with their emotions and … | Continue reading
“I am sorry that people are so brutal to one another when it takes so little to love one another.” –model Bani Yelverton On January 6th, 1970 electronics engineer Jack Froelich returned home to New York City after a two week vacation in Haiti. Coming from that sweltering country … | Continue reading
With her first two novels, Margot Douaihy has created one of the most memorable characters in contemporary crime fiction. In Scorched Grace and Blessed Water, her tattooed, punk rock nun/private investigator, Sister Holiday, solves crimes while following her vocation in the troub … | Continue reading
Forget quaint cottage gardens and picturesque trails—sometimes, Mother Nature has murder on her mind. Growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Pennsylvania, I learned firsthand that the great outdoors isn’t just something to admire from afar. When you spend as much time as I did … | Continue reading
We all know the primary focus of a novel is the main protagonist(s), but sometimes the most memorable personalities in the book are the scene-stealing sidekicks. Some of the funniest characters are the secondary ones who sometimes shine brighter and make more of a lasting mark th … | Continue reading
What is it that draws us to destinations unknown? That compels us to explore and discover new places? There’s something so alluring about taking that leap out of our comfort zone, about traveling to unfamiliar locations far and wide, even if only within the pages of a book. There … | Continue reading
Who doesn’t love Ian Fleming’s James Bond? Most professional intelligent officers, as it turns out. Oh, we don’t hate him, but I’d say that, at best, we have a love-hate relationship with him. It tickles us that the public thinks we could be that suave and charming, that physical … | Continue reading
Down on the East Side, far from the Broadway of Arnold Rothstein’s New York, Lillian Lieben and Antonia Rolnick lived on “Jewish Broadway,” or Grand Street. Back in 1900, the New York Tribune wrote that “Grand Street is Broadway plus Fifth Avenue, only very much more so. Its wide … | Continue reading
Gore Vidal was intellectual culture’s reigning champion of social liberalism and secular advocacy for decades. His famous wit indicates that he would appreciate the irony of someone awarding him the title of “prophet,” but it was well-earned. His series of novels chronicling Amer … | Continue reading
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Alisa Alering, Smothermoss (Tin House) “Surreal, thrilling. . . . Moody, potent, and tinged with the occult, Smothermoss is unlike anything I’ve read in a long time.” –Bustle Carinn Jade, The Astrolog … | Continue reading
The first book I can remember reading is Where The Wild Things Are. I have clear memories of being equal parts enthralled and frightened by Max’s journey across the ocean to the land of wild things. I was also horrified that Max had been sent to bed without dinner. As a greedy ch … | Continue reading
If there’s an all-business town in Italy then it’s Turin. Capital of Piedmont, northern Italy, it sits impressively on the Po River. Just under two million inhabitants in the wider urban area. Like everywhere in Italy there’s a lot of history – the capital of the Duchy of Savoy b … | Continue reading
Twice Round the Clock is a long-forgotten mystery by a woman whose life encompassed professional fame and personal tragedy. Although she was once extremely well-known, it was not as a crime writer. When the book was first published by Hutchinson (a company of considerable renown) … | Continue reading
Much has been written about the origin of characters in fiction, and the inspiration that presses a writer to embark upon a story—perhaps a novel or short fiction, or returning to the character time and again in a series. Sometimes characters are inspired by a writer’s past—perha … | Continue reading
I love a thriller that makes my heart race. But throw in a bit of sexiness and I won’t be able to stop turning the pages. Make the sexiness edgy and forbidden? Even better—I’ll read it in one sitting. Though the added component is not about sex, per se; it’s more about the emotio … | Continue reading
This month’s best psychological thrillers come with a certain symmetry, as well as a speculative twist. There are two novels included that explore celebrity and obsession to their logical (and rather horrifying) conclusions; you’ll also find two different books about robot wives! … | Continue reading
New York, July 22, 1884 They were detectives, accustomed to plunder, But they’d never seen anything like this. It had taken some doing to open the safe. After bursting into the modest haberdashery shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, they’d demanded the keys from the shopkeeper, … | Continue reading
I love to laugh. I love reading stories and watching films that make me laugh. I’m not so fond of people trying to make me laugh. You have to be really talented to try to make me laugh and succeed at it. Comedians like Dave Chappelle, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Steven Wright, … | Continue reading
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Venice was the richest and most powerful nation in Europe. You’d be forgiven for thinking that title would go to one of the larger nations like England or France, but through a combination of physical location, a robust mercantile econo … | Continue reading
In my latest dark thriller, Honeycomb, a washed-up singer takes part in a mysterious—and ultimately nefarious—social experiment that quickly turns catastrophic. Exploring the relationship between celebrities and fans, as well as the addictive nature and relentless pursuit of fame … | Continue reading
I was drinking mojitos after a Florida literary festival with several other authors—it’s a time-honored tradition, the post-panel drink shared with fellow scribes once all the speeches and Q&A are done—when I heard a historical tidbit that made my jaw drop. Did I know that in the … | Continue reading
I didn’t realize I wrote a noir novel until Better Living Through Alchemy was nearly finished. The book grew out of a big-reveal scene I’d conceived for a short horror story: an occult detective finally tracks down a drug trafficker’s lab, and she finds that the alchemical extrac … | Continue reading
A long time ago, I let a friend talk me into going scuba diving in the Great Blue Hole in Belize. I did not have a PADI license. I had never so much as touched a scuba mask, had never been diving, and should absolutely not have agreed to do my first (did I mention […] | Continue reading
I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here tonight. After the successes of last week’s NOIR choose your own adventure, here is a choose your own adventure story about WHODUNNITS. And remember, the way we do it, it’s part game, part quiz, part mad-libs. The Rules: You’re … | Continue reading
Chris Offutt published his first book when I was young and in grad school. Kentucky Straight (Knopf Doubleday, 1992) hit hard amongst us English scholars at the University of Kentucky, and we discussed it ad infinitum way back when. Some of us felt it was absolutely fantastic, ma … | Continue reading
Crime has always been a compelling subject for readers and writers alike. The dark allure of real-life criminal activity, combined with the creativity of fiction, has given rise to a genre that both thrills and educates. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction allows authors … | Continue reading
Who the F did I marry? It’s been the question on everyone’s mind as an epic TikTok series from user Reesa Teesa has gone massively viral. In the hours-long series of videos, she tells her dizzying true story about falling for a seemingly wonderful man who later proved to be a pat … | Continue reading
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Peng Shepherd, All This And More (William Morrow) “In Shepherd’s imaginative latest, [she] playfully mines nostalgia for Choose Your Own Adventure series (“If Ren didn’t break up with Marsh last night … | Continue reading
Fredericka Mandelbaum was a mother of four, a successful shopkeeper, an employer who appreciated unusual talent—and one of her era’s great criminal pioneers. The ingenious, imposing subject of Margalit Fox’s rollicking new book—The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of a … | Continue reading
I always pictured my main character, Louise Lloyd, as an adventuress. Even before I realized I was writing a series, I had big dreams of Lou travelling the world, solving crimes where she landed. It’s part of, but not the whole reason, why I set my series in the 1920s. The feelin … | Continue reading
The Black Spectacles is among the most popular of the Gideon Fell novels written by John Dickson Carr, who is widely recognized as the king of the locked room mystery. Intriguingly, though, this story isn’t a locked room mystery, and Fell doesn’t become involved in the investigat … | Continue reading
Agatha Christie is, of course, one of the most famous writers ever to have written in the English language, or any language for that matter, and is the best-selling fiction writer of all time. I revere her, and have revered her since I was a kid – I’ve probably read every one of … | Continue reading
Okay, friends. It’s a short week, so here’s a little something different for you all… something you can bring with you on vacation or your staycation or wherever else you might be going. Our trivia-quizzes have proven so popular that we’re going to take things to the next level, … | Continue reading
It all began with a black binder. When I first started writing A Darker Mischief, I’d never heard of Dark Academia. It wasn’t a trending aesthetic yet, or notable sub-genre, even if the many books that seemed to define it had come out years (or decades) before, like its unofficia … | Continue reading
Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, near sunset. We’re standing on a narrow sand beach, the maritime forest of live oak, myrtle, and yaupon looming at our backs. To get here from the village, we walked a path through those ancient trees and passed a tiny cemetery with two headstones … | Continue reading
The burden, and I should say the responsibility of writing about a real historical figure, is formidable. Do you depict that person warts and all? How indeed do you reveal those warts without violating your character, but rather make the flaws an interesting part of their persona … | Continue reading
In Italy, when you wish someone good luck, you say, “In bocca al lupo” which literally means Into the mouth of the Wolf. The standard response is “crepi il lupo!” which translates as, May the Wolf Die. This playfully disconcerting idiom is the name of my upcoming novel set in Nap … | Continue reading