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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Seaside villages are beautiful, but they also hold secrets. Sometimes dark, nefarious ones. Like the fact that the picturesque French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland, were in the 1930s a major offshore smuggling hub for American gangster Al Capone. Of course, you’ll find similarly outlandish stories on both sides of the North Atlantic. The UK series Broadchurch, for instance, shows us what the men of a quaint Dorset port town are capable of hiding. While on the other side of the water, the murderous black comedy Blow the Man Down tells of a fishing village in northern Maine where it is the women who keep the secrets. Both of these are dark, bl…
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I rush out of Broadcasting House and turn north toward the police station. If I were to run in the opposite direction, toward her flat, Marian might answer the door. She might stand there, under the yellow paper lantern in her front hall, and say, Tessa, what are you doing here? I sway on my feet, trying to make a decision. Her house isn’t far. Marian lives in south Belfast, on Adelaide Avenue, a quiet row of terraced houses between the railway line and the Lisburn Road. I could be there in twenty minutes. The pedestrian light flashes and I force myself to cross the road. Her flat will be empty, she’s meant to be on the north coast through Friday. She isn’t answering he…
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If one were to apply a filter to my family for certain Texan features, we come off sounding like a cliché. Oil business? Both grandfathers were in the oil business. Raised cattle and grew pecans, too. Did I go to rodeos? Sure, and my brother did competitive cutting and my cousin was a champion barrel racer. Did I have a live longhorn steer photo booth at my wedding? Well, yes. Yes, I did. Do I swoon to the sound of boots scuffing against a gritty dance floor while George Strait sings “Amarillo by Morning”? Hell, yeah. But, I’m here to tell you what, there’s more to me than bluebonnets and cowboy boots. And there’s plenty more to Texas. The following is an incomplete list …
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The Regency era is often viewed by present-day readers as a romantic time of fancy silks and satins, filled with glittering balls in Mayfair mansions and country house parties at grand estates. But there is a grittier side to the era. Historians consider it to be the birth of the modern world, with radical new ideas coming to life and fomenting fundamental changes in every aspect of society. This is especially true in science and technology, as innovations in chemistry, medicine and engineering—to name just a few of the disciplines—were turning the old world upside down. In my Wrexford & Sloane mystery series, I use scientific innovation as the core catalyst for each…
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My sister and I sit outside the convenience store that’s perched where our sleepy street meets the main road in our Southeast Detroit neighborhood. There is a massive NO LOITERING sign directly above us, but we don’t know what loitering means, even as it’s intended to dissuade us from plopping down in our dirty jean shorts and worn flip flops, asking people who go inside if they can spare some change. It has only just occurred to us that this might be a way to earn money having had a stranger pitch in the extra ten cents needed to buy us two Slurpees that have turned our lips and tongues bright hues. My sister pockets the coins with a giddy, blue grin. It’s summer and we…
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In a pivotal scene from David Lynch’s baroque opus Inland Empire (2006), the director of the film-within-a-film reveals a disturbing bit of trivia about the project to his lead actors: the script from which they’re working is, in fact, a remake of an previously unfinished picture, the original production of which was halted after the original leads “discovered something inside the story” and were subsequently murdered. According to rumor, the story, and by extension, the film itself, is cursed. When it comes to discussing his own work, Lynch has always been one of our cagiest directors. It would therefore be wrong to conclude that this scene was directly inspired by own …
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Classic thrillers have a real virgin/whore problem. A quick glance at the canon, and you’ll find plenty of wide-eyed ingenues—the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca comes to mind. But where would our ingenue be without her foil, the femme fatale—Rebecca in Rebecca? Even the more complex depictions of women rarely go beyond a woman who appears to be one and is actually the other (think: any Hitchcock blonde). So when you want to find a thriller about a mad woman, your options tend to be relatively contemporary. That is, unless we reconsider what a thriller is in the first place. In a recent interview, I—along with six other debut authors—had to define the genre. My definit…
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“Brynn!” someone calls, and I turn to see Mason Rafferty standing in the second row of the auditorium seating with his hand in the air. Mason is a head taller than most of our classmates—unreasonably tall, he used to say—with longish dark curls and a gap-toothed smile. He cups his hands around his mouth to amplify his voice above the buzzing crowd and adds, “We saved you a spot.” I catch sight of Nadia beside him and push my way toward them, happy to feel included. “Is there space for Ellie too?” I ask when we reach the row. “Of course,” Mason says, plucking a coat off a couple of empty chairs. “Hello, Eleanor. Nice to see you again. Still tearing up the flute?” “Hello…
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During my awkward teenage years, I produced a lot of angst-ridden poetry on topics such as boredom and unrequited love. I kept those poems in a trunk with a stack of short stories that were also about things that seemed important to teenage me, like the unfairness of parents and teachers. I always thought that one day I would try to write a novel. I never once aspired to be a screenwriter in the glamorous world of film. It simply didn’t occur to me. Until I moved to Los Angeles. I escaped Kansas for California, where my older brother lived. He’d left a few years earlier to pursue a career in acting. At first, I had no interest in his obsession, the television and film b…
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The CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debut novels in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Craig Henderson, Welcome to the Game (Atlantic Monthly Press) A widowed Englishman with a past as a rally driver gets caught up in a Detroit gangster’s dreams of one last job in this intricate and fast-paced debut from Craig Henderson. Welcome to the Game will give you plenty of hair-raising thrills, but the quiet moments and thoughtful characterization will have this story lingering in your mind for a long time after the last page is turned. –DM Blair Braverman, Small Game (Ecco) In this quiet survivalist thriller, a game show in the woods becomes the real deal when…
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The days are cold, the nights are long, and the Scandinavian noir flows freely in this month’s edition of our regular international thriller column. With few releases coming up in December, we’ve included one title from next month in the list as well. Stay tuned next month for our annual quixotic attempt to define the best international thrillers of the year! Eva Bjorg Ægisdóttir, Girls Who Lie Translated by Victoria Cribb Orenda Icelandic newcomer Eva Bjorg Ægisdóttir’s new novel, in the capable hands of experienced translator Victoria Cribb, is a twisty and thrilling ride that promises to leave readers stunned—and wanting more immediately. However, the strangest …
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CrimeReads editors select the month’s best new nonfiction crime books. * H.W. Brands, Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution (Doubleday) Brands’ latest history is an engaging, provocative look at the American Revolution and the largely forgotten battle lines it drew within the colonies: dividing neighbors, families, and communities. Our First Civil War is a study of the schism between Americans who wanted to throw off British rule and those who stayed loyal to the crown. Centuries later, the American Revolution is often taught as a great swelling of popular unrest, but Brands shows how fine the distinctions were, and how the build-u…
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It’s been nearly two years since a new acronym entered the mainstream lexicon: WFH. (Dictionary entry: Abbr. Working from home; work from home. See also WTF?). Millions of office workers around the world swapped out their nerve-jangling commutes for the stupefaction of endless Zoom calls. They gave up constricting neckties and high heels for soft pants and Ring lights. They said good-bye to power lunches and hello to sourdough bread. In the parlance of mystery writers, the office thriller gave way to domestic suspense. But now, with the world maybe, hopefully, about to slouch toward normality, it’s time to ask: How thrilling is your office, or how thrilled are you to ret…
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Seton Hill University in Greensburg, PA offers an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. When I was getting my degree, I read countless essays where genre fiction was referred to as “escapist fiction.” The essays we read were (of course) written by proponents of literary fiction who made it clear that genre fiction was something common and vulgar which should only be sold from seedy shops in back alleys. Genre fiction wasn’t true literature (affect a snobbish accent and be sure to look down your nose). Genre or popular fiction was deemed insignificant and those who read it weren’t as cultured as readers of literary fiction. At the time, I didn’t pay the labels much attention. Di…
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Noir, both fiction and film, is built on a foundation of fear, and no fear grips us quite like the specter of our world ending at any second in a white-hot blast of nuclear fire. The Cold War had barely started when noir began using nuclear paranoia as a theme and a plot point—sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes as overtly as a shockwave destroying a town. Here are four movies and one book that exemplify the facets of what we might call “nuke noir.” Notorious (1946) Alfred Hitchcock began work on “Notorious” in 1944, more than a year before the first nuclear explosion at New Mexico’s Trinity Site officially kicked off the nuclear age. As pre-production on the film pro…
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In 2018, I was asked to speak at a local university known for its diverse, working-class student body. I identify as queer, southern, and working class, so I said yes. And as a non-academic, not-especially renowned author, I felt like a beautiful unicorn. They were gonna pay me to talk about myself? I could not say no to that. After the speech, members of the department took me out to dinner, which was a lovely gesture, if a bit anxiety-inducing for someone who really just wanted to go home to her wife, cat and TV shows. A professor who taught Southern Fiction was also in attendance. On the way to the restaurant, amid the white noise of rain patter and windshield wipers…
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Caro stared at the cables, at the mind-reading machine, at the e-fMRI. The money being expended staggered her. Her salary was only a miniscule fraction. And she still didn’t know what she was supposed to do to earn it. “Julian, if this facility is conducting clinical trials on brain function, why is it being explained to me by a physicist and a software developer? What exactly is this a research trial of, why are there no other medical personnel here, and what does all of it have to do with ‘proving’ immortality?” Even saying that last made Caro feel ridiculous. “It’s an unusual clinical trial,” Julian said. “In fact, that’s not really the right word for it. It…
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CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debuts in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Erin Mayer, Fan Club (MIRA) If Catie Disabato and Amina Akhtar had written the screenplay for Josie and the Pussycats, it might read something like Fan Club. In former Bustle editor Erin Mayer’s blistering debut, her millennial narrator is bored out of her mind working at a women’s magazine, obsessing over the beauty editor’s many freebies and taking as many coffee breaks as possible. “One day, she finds new purpose in the hidden meanings of a pop star’s new hit, joining a devoted group of superfans whose dedication to their diva knows no bounds. What’s the true meaning behind the …
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The CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debut novels in crime, mystery, and thrillers. * Erin E. Adams, Jackal (Ballantine) As Jackal begins, Liz Rocher has reluctantly headed home to Johnstown, Pennsylvania for her childhood best friend’s wedding. She’s prepared for the micro-aggressions from her friend’s racist family, but during the celebration something far worse happens—a beloved child goes missing, and the key to her disappearance stretches back over decades of missing children, all of them young Black girls last seen around the summer solstice. Meanwhile, a spirit in the woods is close to taking corporeal form and rejecting the bonds of its human maste…
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Travel through time and space with October’s best international thrillers, some set in the past, and some concerned with fractured memory and never-solved crimes. Whether you’re interested in picking up a Nordic noir, immersing yourself in a French gothic thriller, or staying up late with a South Korean thriller, these international crime books are the perfect pulse-pounding reads to warm you up this fall. Kjell Ola Dahl, The Assistant Translated by Don Bartlett Orenda Books Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but in Europe in the late 1930s, a cheating spouse is never just a cheating spouse (especially when a PI gets involved). In this historical Scandi noir set dur…
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Hello, readers of the thriller! If life isn’t rough enough for you here are some books that will make you think, Hell, she’s got it worse than I do. This is known as the First Law of Exploitation in the Official Crime Writers Handbook, which is like the DSM-IV with a body count. And the book is terribly hard to find, and quite expensive. Let’s see what the writers are up to in October. Tara Laskowski, The Mother Next Door (Graydon House) Ivy Woods Drive—sounds classy, doesn’t it? A lush cul-de-sac in a fancy suburb where the women all wear athleisure and plan parties and the men spend their time at work or on the golf course. You get it. In Mother, Laskowski has cre…
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October is a strange month around Crime Reads HQ, Canadian division. In my usual sorting of the galleys by month it was a hefty stack, but not that many domestic thrillers were in the stack or in the mix. I found more—there are always more books—but it does make me wonder if the future of the thriller is not as domestic as it used to be. As the world’s incursions into our safe spaces has become impossible to ignore and difficult to figure out, or to make into plot. But that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to make meaning from all of this, including me. Laurie Lico Abanese, Hester (St. Martin’s) I’m always torn about prequels to a book or movie that has made a…
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Founded by Catherine the Great, though often described as distinctly un-Russian in manner and disposition, the Ukrainian port city of Odessa (and nowadays often spelled “Odesa”) is currently in the news for the horrors of war and the city’s brave resistance to Russian attack, historically Odessa stands out as a crime city…criminal legends have been built here in this amazing city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Charles King’s history of the city (which explains a lot about how this Black Sea coastal city became so notorious for crime, exotic criminals, and violence) Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams (2011) lays out the case for Odessa: ‘a taste for the …
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Many years ago, my uncle, Clinton Barbra, looked out his front window and saw a police car idling at the end of his driveway. The car sat there for a moment, and then pulled away. My uncle ran out the back door of his house, went into the trees, and started pulling apart his still. The squad car was driven by a friend of his at the station. That little pause by the driveway was the tip-off: the cops were on their way. My uncle hid what he could in his attic. He couldn’t hide the barrels of mash, however. The police arrested Clinton and poured kerosene over the barrels. When his wife bailed him out, he went back home, dipped out the kerosene, reassembled the still, and ra…
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When I was a little girl, on Saturdays my mother made me take off my jeans and Keds and don a frilly dress, my Sunday shoes, ruffled socks, and white gloves. This was to go shopping in downtown Nashville. Mama loved to shop. I realize now that was because she had been raised so poor that store-bought was about the best thing in the world for her. I, however, hated shopping and I hated those clothes. But I loved Harvey’s. There were other department stores on Church Street, and we shopped in them, too, but Harvey’s was the best by far. It had a cage full of monkeys that climbed, screeched, and scratched while you ate lunch, and it also had escalators. They were the first I…
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