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,
3,491 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 237 views
I saw a ghost show before I knew what one was. At some point when I was still a kid, I was taken to a local drive-in movie theater and saw some 1960s-era horror movie in re-release. At some point during the movie, monsters – local teenagers in cheap rubber masks – ran among the parked cars. I was alarmed. And while the presence of pimply-faced teens wearing Topstone masks was enough to scare me at that tender age, I wish I’d realized that what I was actually seeing was one of the last manifestations, at least around these parts, of the ghost show, or spook show. The real ghost shows, dating back to the early days of the 20th century and usually held in hard-top, or i…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 161 views
There’s this colorful word my dad taught me growing up, common across many South Asian languages. Chalak. It’s not exactly a compliment. If someone calls you chalak, then they think you are cunning, clever, and maybe even devious. It means you use your understanding of people or situations for personal gain. I only have a rudimentary knowledge of my mother tongues, yet this particular word has always stayed with me–perhaps because what it represented stood in stark contrast to the ‘good Indian girl’ stereotypes and expectations I grew up around. And similarly to words like ‘bossy’, ‘aggressive’, and ‘emotional’, chalak can be used as a catch-all to demonize women who def…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 247 views
The CrimeReads editors select the season’s best debut novels. * Latoya Watkins, Perish (Tiny Reparations) In this devastating debut, generational trauma has riven a Black Texas family, but the death of their matriarch may give the family a final chance to tell unvarnished truths to each other and maybe, finally, heal. Latoya Watkins’ impassioned prose brings to life her complex characters and their heavy internal struggles, as well as the flawed, but overwhelming, love they feel for one another. –MO Rasheed Newson, My Government Means to Kill Me (Flatiron) You don’t want to miss My Government Means to Kill Me, the debut novel from Rasheed Newson, producer and w…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 182 views
Hello to my fellow empaths (a term defined by researchers as ‘the opposite of psychopaths’). As a group, we’re benefited and handicapped by our sensitivity to other people’s feelings. It’s what keeps us from torturing and killing humans and other animals—it’s also what might stop us from becoming CEOs, surgeons, and military generals, professions that require their practitioners to do things like sabotage colleagues, cut open brains with steady hands, and easily weigh the cost-benefit analysis of murdering x-number of civilians to wipe out one prolific terrorist cell. As Paul Frick, a psychologist at Louisiana State University, puts it, “They don’t care if someone is mad …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 173 views
The title came to me first. Love in the Time of Serial Killers. I was reading another true crime book – probably not The Phantom Prince by Ted Bundy’s ex, but it’s thematic so let’s go with that one – and I thought, how the hell are you supposed to fall for someone when the threat of this is out there? Turns out that a character obsessed with true crime is kind of the ideal romance novel protagonist. For one, they are ready to bring the drama. In Tessa Bailey’s My Killer Vacation, for example, Taylor Bassey is an elementary school teacher who is also a die-hard true crime podcast listener. So when she comes across a dead body in her Cape Cod vacation rental, she is ready…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 146 views
The frontier of the American West has dominated the cultural consciousness on this continent for centuries, dating back to the earliest era of colonial settlement during which the threshold between the familiar and the wild was drawn along what would now be considered the east coast. As colonial expansion has moved ever westward, exploring and transforming these territories has become emblematic of something indelible in the American experience—confronting the unknown, the dangerous, and the terrifying. The earliest figures to participate in this effort did so during a time of ubiquitous religious observance. Their most fundamental beliefs were challenged by the unpredic…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 256 views
A family room adorned with couch and a coffee table, the aftermath of a disturbing sequence of torture so fresh the blood is still pooling into the fibers of the rug. The body left behind is that of a child, his father dripping wet of sweat and tears crumbled on the floor. The silence, most of all, hangs there, punctuated by gentle sobbing. The boy’s body hidden; he’s no longer in pain—the games that culminated in a bag over the child’s head, devolving into suffocation and strangulation… it’s over. It’s all left to the father to deal with. The father looks up and calls out his wife’s name, suspicious of the dead silence. He gazes over at the lit-up hallway and receives n…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 147 views
It truly gives me great pleasure to be able to put a few words to paper to mark the re-issue of The Benson Murder Case, the first mystery novel by S.S. Van Dine, one of America‘s all-time greatest writers of detective fiction. His books may be largely forgotten today, almost a century from the first publication of this book, but undeservedly so. Van Dine should be mentioned in the same breath as other leading golden age authors, such as Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie. His Philo Vance books were phenomenally popular in their day. According to his biographer, John Loughery, in Alias S.S. Van Dine, “Throughout the late twenties, Willard Huntington Wright (S.S. Van Dine) h…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 278 views
When people describe me as a mystery writer, I’m a little taken aback. While I am of the firm belief that there is a mystery at the heart of all fiction—why else are we reading but to discover something new, about the world, others, ourselves?—I have never seen myself in that light. A traditional mystery implies a “who-dun-it,” and as far as “who-dun-its” go, I have always found the reveal of “who-dun-it” to be something of a letdown. I’m far more interested in the why-they-dun-it. I also don’t consider myself an author of crime fiction. Police procedurals and detective fiction don’t interest me much at all, and while a crime of some sort often plays a part in my novels…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 272 views
In Dan Chaon’s new dystopian thriller, Sleepwalk, his narrator/protagonist draws on a roster of similar but different names, reacting to the shifting existential requirements of his ever-precarious situation. There’s Will Bear, Billy Bayer, Barry Billingsly, and Liam Bahr among his dozen-odd aliases, and each serves a (usually devious) purpose. As Chaon’s spooky tale unfurls, we learn that many in his supporting cast have aliases, too. Their own survival would seem to depend on their ability to “be” someone else when necessary. Chaon is an ingenious writer, and his latest novel reminds me of the essential properties of a name––of our own names (sometimes a pseudonym itse…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 167 views
Is there that big a difference between falling in love and solving a murder? Um, yes, there is, especially when writing about love and murder. For me, it’s not just about content but about the craft and process of writing in those separate genres. I find it fascinating that although I’ve been writing for over twenty years, my beginning process for writing cozy mysteries is vastly different than it is for writing in the romance genre. I started writing romances because I love to read them. It’s not a billion dollar industry for nothing! Comprised of formulaic and original plots, as well as a guaranteed happily ever after (HEA,) the genre breeds voracious readers who wa…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
Tamron Hall is an Emmy-Award-winning talk show host who is also an advocate for domestic violence awareness. She brings all this impressive experience to her debut psychological thriller, As the Wicked Watch (now in paperback from William Morrow), the story of a crime reporter who becomes consumed with her need to bring attention to the murder of a Black teenage girl, the kind of victim who never gets their fair due in the news. As the Wicked Watch eviscerates the news industry as the home of Missing White Woman Syndrome, and combines a driving narrative with a fierce main character for a novel that will keep you turning pages well into the night. Thanks to Tamron Hall fo…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 169 views
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Kathleen Hale, Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls (Grove) “Searing . . . As the first researcher into the case to draw extensively from transcripts of vital records, Hale has produced what stands as the most accurate account to date of this horrifying episode. This is a must for true crime fans.” –Publishers Weekly Catherine Ryan Howard, Run Time (Blackstone) “Howard makes her lead’s experiences feel fresh and immediate as she breathes new life into tired horror tropes. Riley Sager fans will be riveted.” –Publishers Weekly …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
Usually if I get a book way out of the perimeter of my admittedly scattered interests, I put it in the Little Free Library pile. But Flung Out of Space was such a cool idea: a graphic (as in with pictures, not with smut) biography of Patricia Highsmith focused on the time when she sold Strangers on a Train and felt like she could quit her day job working in comics and become a legitimate writer. Thus the story of Highsmith’s quest for legitimacy is not just about her sex life, it’s also about her career; not a word applied to women in her time, but the right word nevertheless). There is also a same-sex love story evocative of Highsmith’s The Price of Salt, a romance betwe…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 192 views
My writer’s group gets together weekly at a local winery. There’s as much drinking and catching up as there is putting words on the page, but we’ve convinced it’s productive since it “sustains our art”. A frequent topic of conversation is the crime fiction TV series each of us is streaming, where mysteries take center stage. Recently, I noticed that as different as our styles of writing are, we seem to be watching the same shows, including Mare of Easttown and Only Murders in the Building, and when we go old-school, Midsummer Murders and Miss Marple. I thought it would be fun to check out what we might be missing. After viewing a dozen streaming mystery series, below…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 193 views
SUZUKI LOOKING OUT AT THE CITY, Suzuki thinks about insects. It’s night but the scene is ablaze with gaudy neon and streetlamps. People everywhere. Like a writhing mass of luridly colored insects. It unsettles him, and he thinks back to what his college professor once said: ‘Most animals don’t live on top of each other in such great numbers. In some ways, humans are less like mammals and closer to insects.’ His professor had seemed pleased with the conclusion. ‘Like ants, or locusts.’ ‘I’ve seen photos of penguins living in groups all bunched together,’ Suzuki had responded, gently needling. ‘Are penguins like insects too?’ His professor flushed. ‘Penguins have nothing …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 166 views
Music composer Bruce Montgomery (1921-1978), who as Edmund Crispin wrote eight glitteringly witty and amusing detective novels between 1944 and 1951 (as well as, with Geoffrey Bush, a fellow composer and the alleged son of detective novelist Christopher Bush, the classic short story “Who Killed Baker?”) is the subject of a now fifteen-year-old biography by David Whittle, Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School, Bruce Montgomery/Edmund Crispin: A Life in Music and Books (2007). Every admirer of Crispin’s mystery fiction (and Montgomery’s music) should read this biography, although affordable copies are hard to find—the publisher, Ashgate, lists it at $155. It took me…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 259 views
Bullet Train, directed by David Leitch and adapted by Zak Olkewicz from Kōtarō Isaka’s novel of the same name, promises a perfectly-contained, hurtling premise: a handful of assassins with vague ties to one another all find themselves, seemingly randomly, executing conflicting missions on a speed train bound for Kyoto. Even without knowing anything else about it, that should be enough to make you buckle up. Brad Pitt plays “Ladybug” (a nickname given to him by his witty handler, whom he talks to via earpiece). He is a cheerful but unlucky small-time operative sent to the bullet train to steal a suitcase from the baggage area. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry ar…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 151 views
2022 has been a banner year for true crime and critical nonfiction, and it was difficult to narrow it down to just the top 10 —and that’s just so far! August in particular has been a great month for new true crime, and you’ll see the month overrepresented in the following selections, but I promise that isn’t recency bias—it’s just a really great month for true crime. The selections on the list below run the gamut for the true crime genre, including an impassioned take-down of junk science, an erudite history of jazz and the underworld, a deeply empathetic examining of a sensational true crime case, a riveting account of a bizarre historical crime, ethnographic encounters …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 290 views
On September 5th, 1965, the Courier of Waterloo, Iowa ran an article concerning the scourge of juvenile delinquency. The juvenile caseload was “small but involved,” the headline read, presided over by a judge who “can’t reach youngsters.” 20 juvenile cases had been tried in the neighboring city of Cedar Falls across the past nine months, and though this number fell well below the number of adult cases that made their way through the courts, these situations were far more complex. In some cases, so-called delinquents appeared before the judge not because they’d broken the law but rather at “the request of parents who find their children ungovernable.” “They are the ‘shook…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 209 views
My debut novel, The Awoken, is a different kind of science fiction in that it is actually about an absence of science. Despite the story being set a century into our future, most scientific and medical innovation has been halted, and in some cases even made illegal. The story is centered around a young woman who dies and then is brought back to life from cryogenic preservation a century later. The issue is, in this future world, it is illegal to be a resurrected person. The technology to resurrect humans from preservation has been discovered, but the science has been criminalized due to society’s fear of wielding such a Godlike power. The result is that the millions of pe…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 277 views
“What about that one?” My sister whispers into the phone as though anyone but me can hear her. She’s excited, and I feel my own heart starting to race at the prospect of what’s about to come. I’ve only helped identify the mark before. I’ve never picked one for myself. I’m sitting alone in a booth at the roadside diner, cradling a lukewarm cup of black coffee. It’s Saturday and there’s a lunch rush. Forks and plates and laughter all around me. A little girl keeps turning in her booth to smile at me. She holds up the drawing she’s made on her paper placemat and I flash her a thumbs up. She giggles and turns back to her family. “Which?” I ask. My Bluetooth headset is hidd…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 214 views
Metafiction is the ultimate analog binge-reading experience, and we love literary inception in our reading diet, and a lot of it. As unapologetically obsessive bookworms, we will take all of the stories we can get stuffed into a single volume. And nesting doll stories about writers and writing, the horrors of the creative process, and the mental toll of making shit up for a living (or stealing it) is so rife with satisfying plot twists and questionable character behavior, we find ourselves returning to the proverbial well time and time again. In our latest novel, The Rule of Three, we had a blast crafting our own contribution to this category. In our case, the story fea…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 155 views
Between the ages of twelve and thirteen I read the entire Agatha Christie oeuvre in under a year. They were like crack for me, my first addiction, I couldn’t get enough of them. I read four a week, under the bedcovers, by torchlight. Then I discovered indie music and that became my next obsession and I forgot about reading books entirely. I rediscovered reading in my early twenties when I read widely and eclectically, but oddly, given my earlier predilection for Agatha Christie’s detective novels, one thing I did not read was crime. I did not read Raymond Chandler, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Patricia Cornell, Patricia Highsmith or Elmore Leonard. I did not read Lee Child, …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 153 views
Musical theater and crime aren’t typically thought of as concepts that go hand-in-hand, outside of dad jokes about Broadway ticket prices. But the two have been interwoven for longer than you might guess. For centuries, the theater scene was considered separate from polite society, a refuge where groups like queer people, sex workers and people of color were frequently creative pioneers and, if still not all the way accepted, more accepted than they’d be in the light of day. Less importantly, but more importantly for the purposes of this article, the musical genre in its varied splendor has given us a wealth of great crime stories. Here are six of the best, as well as whe…
Last reply by Admin_99,