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,
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So, this weekend, every one of us on the CrimeReads staff received texts and emails and notifications from those who know us (people and the internet) to inform us about a new musical sketch that premiered on Saturday Night Live, in which several women, played by Kate McKinnon, Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim, and Chloe Fineman, reveal their secret loves of murdery true crime shows. So we’re posting it here, in case you missed it, because it is not to be missed. You’re going to laugh, trust us. View the full article
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A look at the month’s best reviewed crime novels, mysteries, and thrillers. Abigail Dean, Girl A (Viking) “Girl A, Abigail Dean’s debut novel, shares a kinship with Emma Donoghue’s Room and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones in its harrowing portrayal of trauma. Like those titles, Girl A is certain to rouse strong emotions. It is a haunting, powerful book, the mystery at its heart not who committed a crime, but how to carry on with life in its aftermath … I kept wanting to read Girl A as a fairy tale or parable, to cauterize some of the suffering in its pages, but Dean resists that impulse at every turn, always rooting Lex’s story in the real. Dean looks squarely at …
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After 35 Years, the Murder of Two Teenagers Still Haunts a City—and True Crime Writers
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They were the all-American couple and their town had been called the typical small American city. The daughter of a doctor and the son of a factory owner, they went to the privileged high school on the rich side of town. Their futures were bright. But the September 1985 murders of Kimberly Dowell, 15, and Ethan Dixon, 16, ended the promise of high school graduation, college years and long, fulfilling lives. And their murders left a mark on the city of Muncie, Indiana: bereft parents, saddened classmates, frustrated investigators. In 1997, my frequent co-author, Douglas Walker, and I first wrote, for The Star Press newspaper where we were reporters, about the tragic de…
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Last November, when it was revealed that Harvard’s fencing coach had allegedly accepted $1.5 million in payments from a wealthy, Maryland businessman in exchange for admitting his two sons into Harvard through its fencing program, the story generated shock, but not awe. After all, it was all so familiar. The thirty plus crazy-rich parents that made audacious headlines in March of 2019—including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin—were charged with paying as much as $1.2 million to get their kids into top institutions like Yale, Stanford and the University of Southern California. Their gateway conspirator was William “Rick” Singer, an independent college counselo…
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Hello chums. This is a very short post whose sole intention is to provide you with access to the following hysterical sketch from That Mitchell and Webb Look, the British sketch show featuring the comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. In this skit, Mitchell and Webb play two famous actors (Michael and Alec) whose egos get the better of them while acting as Holmes and Watson. And then there’s some bonus footage where Mitchell and Webb play themselves, off-camera, while waiting to film the Holmes and Watson sketch. (Mitchell and Webb have other, sadder, Holmes/Watson content, but that is for another post on another day.) For what it’s worth, I laughed so long and ha…
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The SHOT Show held annually in Las Vegas is a multicolored, multifaceted, overwhelming, ballistic, gargantuan, flamboyant, and slightly surreal look at the U.S. firearms industry. The biggest gun trade show on the planet fills the sprawling Sands Expo and Convention Center, boasting more than 700,000 square feet of exhibition space. Closed to the public, it attracts over sixty thousand people from the industry, including gun makers, gun importers, gun dealers, gun repairers, gun specialist lawyers, gun trainers, gun lobbyists, and gun anything else you can think of. Representatives from armies and police forces around the world attend, sealing bulk orders in meetings in g…
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CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debuts in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Sarah Pearse, The Sanatorium (Pamela Dorman Books) Sarah Pearse’s atmospheric thriller involves a naive hotelier destroyed by his own hubris when he attempts to turn the ruins of a sanatorium into a swanky new destination for travelers. First, his architect vanishes. Then, the staff start disappearing. And then, an avalanche traps the rest of the staff, to be picked off one by one. Lucky for the rest of the hotel’s trapped denizens, there’s a British cop visiting, and she’s determined to hunt down the attacker, even as the weather rages outside and threatens to obliterate the entir…
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I’ve been a huge fan of Jeff VanderMeer’s fiction since his noir fantasy novel Finch. In the years since, I’ve grown to admire—and envy—his range as an author, along with the depth of his imagination and his ability to send chills down my spine while enthralling me with his prose. His work includes The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation), Borne, and Dead Astronauts. I first met him in London with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, a Hugo and World Fantasy Award-winner and his co-editor of the anthologies The Big Book of Science Fiction and The Big Book of Classic Fantasy. Since then, we’ve reconnected at the Texas Book Festival and over tacos in Austin. VanderMeer is an author I…
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“Mr. Rai.” Constable Neri at my elbow, her gaze incisive in a softly rounded face, and her skin a midbrown shade made dull by the lack of sunlight. “Would you like me to drive you home?” “That’s my father,” I said. “Call me Aarav.” Not Ari. Never that. It’s what my mother called me, and I couldn’t bear to hear it from any other lips. The last girlfriend who’d tried had been so frightened by my reaction that she’d packed up and left the same day. “You looked like you wanted to strangle me,” she’d said on the phone the next day. “That much rage, your face all twisted up until I didn’t know you anymore . . .” Her voice had broken. “Aarav, you need to see a shrink or you’ll…
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In 1977, the New York Daily News published an article about a beautiful young con woman named Barbara St. James. (At least, that was one of her names.) “If you meet her, you will like her,” ran the article. “She will draw out your life story, your troubles and triumphs. She appears wealthy, a woman of substance and class. She drips with sincerity.” Appears was the second-most important word in the paragraph, but the first was like. You will like her. Beautiful Barbara’s life story has long been forgotten, but that line could be used to describe almost every con woman before and after her. If you meet her, you will like her. The con woman’s likability is the single most…
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Earlier this month, we were excited to learn that Sisters in Crime has launched a new program to support emerging LGBTQIA+ authors! Submissions are now open for the inaugural Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers, which will provide a $2,000 grant to an emerging crime fiction writer at the beginning of their career who identifies as LGBTQIA+. There is no cost to submit. This is the first year for the Pride Award, which has been created as the legacy project from past Sisters in Crime president Sherry Harris. We caught up with this year’s judges, John Copenhaver, Cheryl Head, and Kristen Lepionka, to find out more about the new program, and to discuss the state…
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It may be two months past the winter solstice, but show’s still falling in NYC and there’s plenty of winter weather left to motivate us to stay in and read. These new-in-paperback titles are some of the most exciting mysteries and crime novels around—plus, they won’t break the bank! Kate Elizabeth Russell, My Dark Vanessa (William Morrow) (2/2) “[An] exceedingly complex, inventive, resourceful examination of harm and power.” –The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice Kathy Reichs, A Conspiracy of Bones (Scribner) (2/2) “Reichs roars back with a Temperance Brennan mystery unlike any that have come before it…” –Booklist Michael Connelly, Fair Warning (Grand…
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Humankind is predisposed to the hyperbolic. It was a true in the Titanic’s day as it is today. We love anything that smells of success. We want it huge, we crave it grand: the biggest, the fastest, the most opulent, the richest. We are drawn to such claims like moths to flame. As much as we love hyperbole, however, it invariably leads to disappointment. This world is not meant for absolutes. Every title has an asterisk or footnote, explaining why any claims must be qualified. The problem is that we love our absolutes and have no patience for the fine print. It is no mystery why we’re drawn to the Titanic. In writing my novel The Deep, a reimagining of the sinking of RM…
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He walked, feeling his body fill with blessed tiredness. Vyrin knew every root, every hole on this path, and he looked forward to seeing the pasture on the left, fenced by rowan trees—the berries would be ripe in color by now—and then he would encounter the sweet, gentle chimney smoke from the farm. The walk both tired and invigorated him; his recent fears seemed silly. I guess I really am old, he thought. I’ve become neurotically fearful. He could see the cathedral from the last turn. It stood on a stone outcropping that divided the top of the valley. The yellow façade, framed by two bell towers, continued upward from the vertical plane of the cliff. This church was mu…
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The Baker Street Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes’s organization of motley street urchins, are going to get their own Netflix series. It’s a dark show, full of supernatural mysteries, but the paranormal activity is not the only modification to the Sherlockian world you know and love. The program, titled The Irregulars, posits that the group is manipulated into solving dangerous supernatural crimes by Dr. Watson (who is evil)—feats for which his sketchy business partner Sherlock Holmes gets all the renown. The series, which consists of eight episodes, is due to make its streaming debut on March 26th. In an interview with the BBC, writer Tom Bidwell sums up the series as a new …
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Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Russ Thomas, Nighthawking (Putnam) “Outstanding. . . Thomas adeptly develops his diverse cast, but the novel’s real power lies in its intricate structure—the mystery surrounding the body is impressively deep, the various levels of tension are relentless, and every chapter ends with a narrative punch to the face. This police procedural is virtually unputdownable.” –Publishers Weekly Steve Berry, The Kaiser’s Web (Minotaur) “Berry keeps finding enticing alternate-history mysteries for Malone to solve . . . Keep ‘em coming.” –Booklist Joe Ide, Smoke (Little Brown) “Ide has dis…
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I’ve always been impressed with the level to which authors, readers, and editors support each other in the crime fiction community, but the folks at #pitchwars go above and beyond. I interviewed some of the wonderful mentors and mentees of Pitch Wars to find out how their community works to help new authors break into the industry. We talked about gatekeeping, getting started, and how to gracefully take an edit, among other things. Thanks to Kellye Garrett (Hollywood Ending), Layne Fargo (They Never Learn), Mia P. Manansala (Arsenic and Adobo), Mary Keliikoa (Denied), and Dianne Freeman (A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder) for answering all my questions about this fant…
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The CrimeReads editors recommend the month’s best new crime nonfiction. * Ellen McGarrahan, Two Truths and a Lie (Random House) In 1990, Ellen McGarrahan, then a reporter working for the Miami Herald, attended the execution of Jesse Tafero. The bungled execution stayed with her for a long time after, and the haunting only grew worse when she learned, years later, that there was serious doubt as Tafero’s conviction. McGarrahan eventually left behind life as a reporter and turned private investigator. From her new perspective, she decided to delve into the case to find out what really happened, and to wrestle with some of her own demons in the process. Two Truths and…
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When I tell people that I write cozy mysteries, the most common question I get is “Who are you and why are you knocking on my door at three o’clock in the morning?” The second most common question is “What are cozies?” Cozy mysteries are fun, light-hearted adventures—with a side of murder. A reluctant sleuth in a quaint town filled with zany characters follows a twisty trail of suspects and clues to uncover the unlikely killer. Compared with their more hard-boiled mystery cousins, cozies have surprisingly little blood with their murders, and limited adult situations—with no strong language and no sex. The first full-length cozy mystery appeared in the 1930s, featuring A…
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As winter storms batter much of the country, and treacherous films of ice cover the roads, we’re even more homebound than usual this month, which means it’s the perfect time to indulge in some far-ranging reads. Each month, CrimeReads selects the best international new releases for crime fans, and espionage and thriller fans should be especially pleased with these wintry offerings. Looking for some order in society? Check out a new procedural from China. Ready to feel terrified in your own home? We’ve got just the German thriller for you! And wondering how authors keep coming up with fresh new tales of Eastern European intrigue? Here are three new books that prove the top…
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When I sold my first YA novel nearly a decade ago, a friend asked me, “Do you think you’ll ever write a real book?” When I looked at her askance, she clarified, “You know, a book for adults.” There’s a pervasive misconception that books written for children are somehow smaller. That they take less work or are less challenging to craft. Too many people view content for children as less, but anyone who spends time with young people knows they’re more—more challenging, more skeptical, more demanding. Young consumers are passionate, but their attention can be difficult to capture and even harder to hold. Those who’ve never read YA are quick to judge it. They wouldn’t know th…
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Everyone loves a good Cold War thriller. For two seasons, the TV series “Counterpart” gave us not only a Cold War thriller but a Cold Worlds thriller. The chilly Berlin locations—not filmed with a blue filter like the London of “Sherlock” but still sufficient to make you want to put on a sweater—restrained performances and the coldly-calculated plot hold us at arms length while they draw us in. The credits of “Counterpart” set the tone for the series. They are by turn intriguing and mundane: Shots of impersonal office settings juxtaposed with tantalizing looks at an isolated figure walking through cavernous, stylized underground landscapes. The latter are meant to sug…
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My hometown, Oxford, is a city of bookish ghosts. Its honeyed streets—now spookily empty—hold shimmery echoes of its literary past. And I’m not talking about the obvious here: Inspector Morse or His Dark Materials, or even the University’s 45 Colleges with their medieval cloisters and chapels and gargoyles. I’m talking about the characters that haunt the little alleys, nooks and crannies, the tunnels and vaults, the hidden graveyards. One of my favorites spots is an unobtrusive doorway right in the city centre where a lion’s face is carved into the wood, two golden fauns perched above him: a physical inspiration, so I’m told, for C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. Another…
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Kid Guthrie—I’m sorry, Andrew Guthrie—my pint-sized young protégé at the paper and I went to the memorial auditorium for Larry McKnight’s speech in November. It had been a little less than a week since the senator flooded the state with his press release about the Capital News and the Communist on its staff. Though he named no names, he meant me of course, Randall Harker, Dell for short, the city editor who happened to be writing a series on the sorry-ass job McKnight was doing in Washington. I was mostly just chronicling his career—his disinclination to show up on the Senate floor even during important votes, his constant campaign-financing irregularities, the bribes he…
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When we decided at CrimeReads that our next roundtable would be with women who write espionage fiction, I really did not know what to focus on. How does espionage work in a Trump or post-Trump world? As this roundtable was back in the dark ages between the election and inauguration, I knew we’d have to address the orange man in the room but not how to put it into an espionage context. Fortunately, our excellent panel had many ideas about the political climate and the hallmarks of espionage: double-dealing, lying, manipulating, cheating, money, reputation. Once we got into our discussion it seemed inevitable that a regime like the one recently past would be chock full of …
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ALGONKIAN SUCCESS STORIES
What should you accept as credible?
Where it All Began
