Crime Reads - Suspense, Thrillers, Crime, Gun!
CrimeReads is a culture website for people who believe suspense is the essence of storytelling, questions are as important as answers, and nothing beats the thrill of a good book. It's a single, trusted source where readers can find the best from the world of crime, mystery, and thrillers. No joke,
3,445 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 100 views
Despite a backdrop of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions threatening travel plans to Iceland, I was able to catch up with Louise Penny, author of the popular Three Pines traditional mysteries starring Inspector Gamache. We talked over breakfast at the Hotel Saga in Reykjavik one Saturday morning during November’s Iceland Noir conference. Given the conference line-up, it felt right that nature would go out of its way to greet the stars. How often will you find Richard Armitage, Dan Brown, Neil Gaiman, Lisa Jewell, C.J. Tudor, and Irvine Welsh all sharing the same space, along with many fine authors working a range of genres*. But there’s more: The day before we met Loui…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 89 views
Our goal with all of our books is always to write something fun and fast-paced, but it also must touch on certain themes like privilege, racism and the inequality of our justice system because that’s the reality of the world we live in. That’s our experience and there’s no way to avoid it. We want our books to be part escapism, part very genuine critiques of the corrosive effects of social inequalities—but never with a heavy hand. Our stories are aggressive in their messaging but subtle in their execution, and our murder mystery, Perfect Little Lives is a quintessential example of that. This way there’s a backdrop of social commentary that isn’t on the nose or in your fac…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 65 views
It never dawned on me how much I use ‘friends as family’ as a trope in what I write. Hindsight is a funny thing. From that first book I wrote thirty novels ago to Death at a Scottish Wedding (Lucy Connelly), coming out in January, friends play an essential role in developing my main characters and the plot. In the Lucy Connelly Sea Isle series, Dr. Emilia leaves everyone behind when she moves from Seattle to a small town in Scotland, but her friends in the new village become closer than any family ever could. Not only do they help her solve crimes, but they are there when times are tough. While I’m lucky enough to come from a loving family, I wouldn’t survive without …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 92 views
A stranger comes to town. He is stern, quiet, with a whiff of criminality, seductive to women and men alike, his life like an arrow shooting him onward. He meets a family, he befriends a boy, he almost falls for another man’s wife, and then he saves them all in a burst of gunfire. Rider from Nowhere first appeared in serial in Argosy magazine, but by the time it reached book form, it bore the name of its emblematic lead character, Shane. Jack Schaefer’s 1949 novel sold 12 million copies. George Stevens’ blockbuster 1953 movie led a pack of Western films racing across the 1950s, including The Gunfighter, Man of the West, High Noon, The Man from Laramie, 3:10 to Yuma, and …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 87 views
There is a magnificent bit in a Sherlock Holmes story, which—subconsciously in the beginning, I guess – gave me the inspiration for my first detective novel, Death Under a Little Sky. Holmes and Watson, that charming odd couple of nineteenth century fiction, are on a train, chewing over the details of some seemingly baffling case, when they get to talking about the landscape that speeds past outside their window. Watson is, typically, conventional in his regard for its beauty; Holmes is, typically, caustic, in his response, noting that no dark and smog-soaked rookery is more likely to present “a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside”.…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 76 views
The beauty of being asked to interview Chris McGinley about his new book Once These Hills was I knew I was going to read it anyway and knew I was going to read it as soon as it hit my hands. Chris is a writer of very specific passions—classic Appalachian literature and crime fiction—and he has married the two beautifully as I suspected he would. I spoke to him recently to find out just how he did it. WB: The first thing that struck me about your amazing book Once These Hills is that it’s two things at once. It’s a gripping crime novel dressed up in the clothes of a classic Appalachian yarn full of superstition, hard-living, haints, wildlife, mountain characters, and all …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 101 views
If you have ever wanted to know how it feels to snatch a painting from a museum wall, slide it under your shirt, and take off, then Michael Finkel’s, The Art Thief is for you. Finkel puts you in the scene and in the mind of Stephane Breistwieser, a man who stole more than 200 artworks from European museums and churches for a combined worth of $2 billion dollars. Breistwieser loved art, believed he could take care of it better than any museum, never sold a single piece, and lived with it until he couldn’t (a spoiler I will not disclose). At just over two-hundred-pages it’s a concise page-turner, a book for anyone interested in the criminal mind, with all the daring and chu…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 85 views
What is it about the work of Patricia Highsmith that attracts some readers as powerfully as it repels others? I’m in the first group: I fell under the spell of her weird, chilling, compelling voice the first time I read her. Wondering what all the fuss was about, I went to the bookstore and randomly bought The Price of Salt (which was later made into the movie Carol), not knowing that it was an anomalous choice as it was more a love story—forbidden love, at the time—than the kind of crime story Highsmith became famous for. The power of the storytelling lay in the eerie clarity of her narrative voice and a fierce willingness to push her characters over all kinds of edges.…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 70 views
You hold in your hands one of Otto Penzler’s American Mystery Classics, a series that resurrects out-of-print gems in handsomely designed new editions. I owe this series a great debt because it introduced me to the work of one of my favorite mystery authors, John Dickson Carr. Carr was an American but lived and worked in England during the 1930s. Outlandishly prolific, he quickly built a body of work that placed him in the pantheon of what is now known as the “golden age of detective fiction.” This isn’t the brute poetry of Hammett or the seedy sexual decay of Cain, no Spades or Marlowes or gumshoes packing gats. This is murder as a gentleman’s game, the fair play of mas…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 75 views
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * James Grippando, Goodbye Girl (Harper) “This is the eighteenth Swyteck novel since The Pardon (1994), and it’s just as good as the rest. Grippando keeps coming up with complex and timely cases, and this one is first-rate.” –Booklist Amy Pease, Northwoods (Atria/Emily Bestler) “Outstanding…Pease’s sharp dialogue and well-rounded characters enrich the core mystery with an authentic representation of the everyday struggles of small-town Americans. Admirers of Eli Cranor will eagerly await more from this gifted writer.” –Publishers Weekly Katia Lief, Invisible Women (Atlantic M…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 82 views
Kinshasa – capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Formerly Léopoldville under the bad days of Belgian colonialism, now one of the fastest growing megacities in the world with 16 million citizens and rising quickly – the most populous city in Africa, ahead of Lagos and Cairo. Diamonds, and rare earths all feature now as key sectors of the Congo’s economy and essential to our modern lives but susceptible to the instability of the DRC. And a long history of featuring in crime writing… Let’s start with Joseph Conrad and the classic Heart of Darkness (1899). Conrad was briefly a steamboat captain in the Belgian Congo in the 1890s and the place and the actions of t…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 83 views
When The Fury of Beijing is published at the start of the new year, it will be the 19th book in the Ava Lee series—15 featuring Ava, and 4 featuring her mentor Uncle. They comprise about 7,000 pages, and 1,500,00 words. Not too shabby for what began with just her name and a couple of sentences bouncing around in my head. Fury will also be the last book in the series, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to write about how it began, and how it somehow made it as far as it did. The Ava journey started in July, 2009 and coincided with me having some major surgery. It wasn’t something I’d planned before the surgery, but then post-op as I was being wheeled to my room an o…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
Rian Johnson and Olivia Rutigliano talk Poker Face, Knives Out, and Golden Age Mysteries
by Admin_99- 0 replies
- 638 views
Reissued for the first time this century, John Dickson Carr’s The Problem of the Wire Cage is an atmospheric and amusing Golden Age mystery with a memorable puzzle at its center. Dickson Carr is famous for his puzzling “impossible crime” plots in which corpses are discovered in scenarios that seem to lack any logical explanation. Among all of Carr’s ingenious crime scenes, the present case is one of the best known: a dead man is found strangled in the middle of a clay tennis court, just after a storm. In the damp dirt, there is one set of footsteps—his own—leading back to the grass; the court is otherwise untouched. This edition from American Mystery Classics has a new in…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 81 views
When I first came up with the idea for Five Bad Deeds, I didn’t imagine telling the story from so many different points of view. I had my main character, Ellen Walsh, all fleshed out, and Five Bad Deeds was supposed to be very much her story. However, best laid plans often go awry. See, at its core, Five Bad Deeds is a story about perception – how we perceive ourselves, how others perceive us, and the occasional yawning gap between those two things. Therefore, it was important that Ellen’s character, and her actions, be seen through the lens of a number of different people – her family, friends and neighbours (and among those, her sworn enemy). Many crime novels use…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 76 views
My last book about the mafia, Mob Rules: What the Mafia Can Teach the Legitimate Businessman, was an international bestseller translated into 20 languages. Because of the book’s global appeal, I was invited by the German media conglomerate Axel Springer to speak at their annual retreat for editors, being held at the Hotel Villa Athena in Agrigento, Sicily. The first evening, I met an older gentleman who introduced himself as George. We struck up an enjoyable conversation that centered on our mutual love of history, and, at some point, George said to me: “I would like to publish your next book.” This softly spoken man, who conversed with me as if we had known each other f…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 94 views
Cornell Woolrich published Black Alibi in 1942. His tenth book overall, it was the third in his series of “Black” novels. The Bride Wore Black (1940), later adapted into a film by Francois Truffaut, led the sequence off, succeeded by The Black Curtain (1941), The Black Angel (1943), The Black Path of Fear (1944), and Rendezvous in Black (1948). None of the six books has a continuity with any of the others, but each in different ways mines the dark psychological territory a reader expects from Woolrich. Black Alibi wastes no time in its setup. We are in Ciudad Real, “the third largest city south of the Panama Canal,” and in the first chapter, titled The Alibi, casino and …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 97 views
I’m often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” My answer always varies, as each book is different. But for my latest, Mister Lullaby, the idea was sparked by a luridly creepy picture of the Petite Ceinture, a once-thriving and now abandoned railway looping around the center of Paris, built more than 150 years ago. Moss and algae now festoon the stone entrances and exits, with doors that lead down to the hidden world of the Paris catacombs below. Inside the Petite Ceinture, the silence is palpable; the darkness, seemingly eternal; the echoes, endless; the phosphorus mushrooms glowing in the darkest recesses, unworldly. My fictional tunnel in Harrod’s Reach, Nebraska, aba…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 69 views
Here in Avalon was never supposed to be about fairies. I’d envisioned the novel—a literary thriller about two sisters, one of whom, Cecilia, goes missing after getting involved with a mysterious interactive theatre troupe—as a straightforwardly Gothic cult story: complete with plenty of murders to solve. And, two or so drafts in, it still wasn’t working—or at least not working in the way I wanted it to. The characters weren’t quite coalescing; their motivations weren’t quite making sense; the Avalon itself—the shadowy cabaret troupe at the heart of the novel’s plot—always just beyond my reach, thematically, even as more and more of the book’s scenes were set there. And th…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 79 views
Cozy mystery is a subgenre of crime fiction. When readers ask what are cozy mysteries, I explain they’re mysteries without on-the-page violence, physical intimacy or naughty words. That’s the quick-and-simple answer. Then I watch as their faces light up with understanding. I love that moment. Of course, people who read cozy mystery novels—also called cozies—know there’s a lot more to this subgenre than stories without gore, sex or obscenities. It’s not just about what they don’t have. What I love most about cozies—in addition to the mysteries—are the elements they do have. I love the humor, the quirky secondary characters, the closeknit communities, and especially the in…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 79 views
I’m a city girl, but I really enjoy reading stories set in state parks and forests and islands and other areas where there is less population, and the environment is as much of a character as the people. And the wildlife? Oh, yes, I want to meet them too. I write stories mostly set in urban areas and also like reading city stories. But my current mystery series, the Alaska Untamed Mysteries, was inspired by my most recent Alaskan cruise. I’ve written other mystery series, but this is my first under a pseudonym: Lark O. Jensen—not far from my real name of Linda O. Johnston. And this series involves the remote environment and, even more, the wildlife. Why was I inspired?…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 92 views
Who doesn’t love a superbly executed plot twist? One that completely takes you by surprise and turns the story on its head. One that makes you gasp out loud because you truly did not see it coming. There have been times when I have been totally blindsided by a twist and every time that happens I absolutely love it. I am particularly thinking of Greer Hendricks’ The Wife Between Us here, which will always stay with me for the fact that it was so superbly done and I don’t believe I have ever seen it executed quite like this novel does anywhere else. (I won’t add any spoilers here.) But the latter point in itself is important. Because as soon as a twist is replicated, it bec…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 96 views
You’ve seen the Amish culture in books, movies and even in exaggerated “reality shows.” Without electricity, automobiles, TV, radio or other modern conveniences, the Amish drive horse drawn buggies, use kerosene and candle light, and generally live a rural farming lifestyle. It’s like stepping back in time with a community of people who choose a simple existence and reject any outside influences on their self-described Plain way of life. The Amish have attracted a lot of attention from curious tourists and authors alike. Not only are people curious about this peculiar culture, but it gives a wonderful setting for murder mysteries with a tight-knit community that will prot…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 87 views
The woods have been a popular setting in literature for centuries, from the Grimm Brothers to today’s bestsellers, but what makes a forest such a seductive setting for fiction? When I started putting together ideas for my second novel, What Waits in the Woods, I turned to this interesting and ubiquitous setting. But why? What draws us to the deep, dark woods? We all shudder at the fairy tales the Grimm Brothers gathered, edited, and published in 1812. Since, generations of children have been lulled (or terrified) to sleep by these dark tales. In more modern times, fairy tales have been softened to exclude the most brutal and bloodthirsty elements. Still, the story of Han…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 83 views
If you are going to write a sensational, news-worthy crime story into your fiction, you have a few models for how to proceed. First, there is the Gone Girl model. Use a real-life crime as your inspiration—in Flynn’s case, the disappearance of Laci Peterson—and take liberties. Change names, character backgrounds, and crucial plot elements. Twist the ending, maybe. Allow your readers the faintest ring of familiarity, but make the story your own. Writers who have done this—Eliza Clark in Penance, Emma Cline in The Girls, Alexis Schaitkin in Saint X—are usually not interested in the crime itself, but in the human drama behind it. They, like all of us, watched these events un…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 72 views
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Vanessa Chan, The Storm We Made (Marysue Ricci/S&S) “An intricate puzzle in which [Chan] deftly moves narrative pieces in time and among viewpoints.” –Booklist Kate Brody, Rabbit Hole (Soho) “A gritty, realistically ambivalent look at how insiders and outsiders experience crime, with a realistic main character to boot.” –First Clue Reviews Tara Isabella Burton, Here in Avalon (Simon and Schuster) “Burton’s latest enthralls while exploring the frequently fraught nature of adult sibling relationships. Cecilia serves as the book’s third rail, dividing its characters and im…
Last reply by Admin_99,