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,
3,451 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 171 views
Zarqa Nawaz is as smart as she’s funny, and that’s saying something, since she’s very funny. Nawaz first became known for her hilarious and heartwarming sitcom, Little Mosque on the Prairie, and now she’s embraced fiction writing with her new novel, Jameela Green Ruins Everything, in which a woman prays for a book deal, accepts a mission from an imam to perform a good deed, and somehow finds herself in conflict with the CIA. Zarqa Nawaz was kind enough to answer a few questions over email. Molly Odintz: The premise for this novel is wildly inventive. What was your inspiration? Zarqa Nawaz: When my memoir, Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, didn’t make it to the New Yo…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 170 views
Frank McGonigle was 26 when he left his midwestern home on June 7, 1982. His family never heard from him again. They spent nine years searching and hoping for his safe return. Seven days after he disappeared, an unidentified body was found in some woods 1,200 miles away on the coast of South Carolina. The small-town sheriff and coroner had only a few circumstantial leads to go on. They spent nine years trying to identify this body they referred to as “The boy in the woods.” An unlikely series of events eventually brought Frank’s family some answers and some semblance of peace. When I set out to write Ripple: A Long Strange Search for a Killer, I didn’t intend to work mys…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 138 views
Like a good mystery, the alley was both hidden and obvious. You could walk right by it and never see it. A gap by design. My secret smoking lounge. And, that day, my front-row seat to the crime that would change everything, the first rip of the unraveling. I had no money for cigarettes, of course, but smoking what I confiscated from my students was fair game. Students aren’t allowed to smoke at Saint Sebastian’s—it was my duty to step in. And Sister Honor says waste is a sin. So, there I was on my stoop in the alley on Sunday night, minding my own business, roasting in the delirious heat that never ceased, not even at dusk. Django Reinhardt guitar spilled from a car some…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 188 views
I was named after a crime novel. My parents chose my nickname, Polly, after Dorothy Sayers’s Lady Mary Wimsey, a rebellious aristocrat who defies her upper-class family and sometimes assists her brother, Lord Peter, in solving crimes. When I was growing up, my mom relaxed each night after dinner with a glass of Chardonnay, a pack of Virginia Slims, and a paperback mystery by Ngaio Marsh or Colin Dexter. I remember thinking how great it would be to write a book that someone could disappear into like that. What was it about crime fiction that she loved so much? How did these writers keep her attention, and how could I do the same thing? When I became a novelist, I formulat…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 180 views
I’m an apocalypse junkie. Not because I love seeing the world all jacked up (except, okay, I do) but because of how powerful and versatile the apocalypse is as a narrative device. Apocalypses can be fun! They’re a chance to sweep away all the annoying quotidian bullshit and live life pared down to just your favorite tools and your wits, a camping trip that never ends. Or they can be a handy crucible, a way to boil off everything until only the hardiest emotional truths remain. At their most wretched, the apocalypse gives authors and readers a place to see how dark the human soul can get and why. I set my own forthcoming novel, City of Orange, in a post-apocalypse. That’s …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 212 views
With one short sentence – ‘There shall continue to be a Secret Intelligence Service’ – the British government acknowledged for the first time that it engaged in spying. Baked into these nine words from the 1994 Intelligence Services’ Act are all sorts of wonderful things: impeccable self-control, a very British restraint, but also world-class chutzpah, a sense that such an admission, rather than being long overdue, is in fact below one’s dignity. If Lord Downton (or whatever he’s called) were forced to make an admission to Lady Downton, I imagine he would use similar language. ‘I shall continue to have an affair with the chambermaid’, or ‘I shall continue to squander my f…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 241 views
Ever since my adolescent days when I, like every other kid I knew, had unlimited access to HBO and Cinemax After Dark, I’ve been hooked on salacious thrillers. The more Adrian Lyne-esque the better. There’s something about the themes of obsession, infidelity, betrayal, seduction, and murder that set my inner wicked heart a thrumming. Bold women making devious—and sometimes dangerous choices—so-called “unlikable” female characters acting in unapologetic ways. The more salacious, the better. I think of Diane Lane in Lyne film, “Unfaithful” and how she strays from a perfect marriage into the arms of a dashing, torrid fling. And how perfectly subversive that is. Here’s a fem…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 270 views
It may be the fact that this CrimeReads editor moved back to Texas, but did anyone else feel like summer started months ago?!? Or maybe I just felt that way because I started reading for the summer preview back in February, to make sure I dedicated plenty of time to picking out the cleverest, twistiest, most puzzling and pulse-pounding mysteries I could find for your poolside consumption over the next few months. Let’s see which is higher—this year’s record temperatures, or the number of books on your to-read list after scrolling through the following. (Also because this preview was assembled by a former bookseller, the old joke about booksellers recommending emotionally …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 191 views
James Lee Burke’s new novel, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, is, perhaps, his most personal. The 85-year-old titan of American literature claims the worst imaginable impetus for the book – the death of his daughter, Pamala. In his fascinating and deeply moving Introduction to Every Cloak Rolled in Blood, he pays beautiful tribute to his late daughter, and also explains how he returned to his Holland family series of novels to update the story of protagonist, Aaron Holland. Every Cloak Rolled in Blood finds Holland, himself a novelist in his 80s, living in Burke’s adopted home state of Montana, grieving the unexpected loss of his daughter. Every Cloak Rolled in Blood provid…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 202 views
Adolf Eichmann’s superior officer, the man he tried so hard to please, was Reinhard Heydrich; and with Heydrich at last, we arrive at some-one with character and responsibility comparable to his terrible power. Heydrich was the official custodian of the new morality. Neither his career nor his personality could be described as banal; in fact, so many elements of social significance collided at his desk that one historian has labeled him “a symbol and perhaps the representative figure of the Third Reich at the peak of its internal and external power.” It is easy to see why: if ever a man killed in cold blood, that man was Reinhard Heydrich; if ever a man lived his life wi…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 211 views
There’s been lot of talk about unlikeable characters, in particular female ones, who seem to be given a much harder time than their male counterparts (I know this because I’ve written a fair few). Women protagonists can be strong but not bitchy. Harsh but they must still display a softer side. And for goodness’ sake, beware of making them know-it-alls. For a long time, it appeared the consensus was unlikeable female characters still needed to be, well, likeable. Recently, I’ve noticed a shift toward a wider acceptance of the fact female protagonists can be as evil and Machiavellian as male ones, and that’s a good thing because it makes for much more interesting stories (…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
As soon as Agneta’s daughters had left, everything became urgent. She grabbed a rucksack from the hall and hurried upstairs. Way back when, the bathroom had felt like the safest place—for three reasons. You could lock yourself in, there was no way to see in, and no one would ask what you were up to inside. And the many visi- tors to the house always used the toilets downstairs. Burying things in the garden or heading off into the woods might seem smart in the heat of the moment, but when the equip- ment came to be needed, it might not be possible to retrieve it at once. She’d got that far in her thoughts, even back then. Now she didn’t have much time. Naturally, there …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 206 views
Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * James Lee Burke, Every Cloak Rolled in Blood (Simon and Schuster) “Burke rolls together the driving themes that have dominated his work—the inescapable presence of evil, the restorative power of love, the desecration of the planet, humanity’s long slouch toward Armageddon—into an intensely, heartrendingly personal exploration of grief.” –Booklist, starred review Kiersten White, Hide (Del Rey) “The suspenseful plot combines elements of Thomas Tryon’s classic Harvest Home, Netflix’s Squid Game, and the social commentary of Jordan Peele’s film oeuvre and mixes these with a revelator…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 166 views
In the early twenty-tens, I read Albert Camus’ The Plague. Due to its allegorical treatment of the French Resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII, it reminded me of the current gentrification resistance movements popping up all over Los Angeles. At the time, I lived in South Central, although urban planners and city leaders attempted to rebrand it as South Los Angeles in order to liberate it from the negative stigma it developed in the 80s and 90s in relation to: the crack epidemic, gangster rap, street gangs, graffiti, and social-realist urban films. But of course, a simple name change cannot delete a region’s past. Yet, in a city like Los Angeles, where culture is dri…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 282 views
The age old conundrum of which came first, the chicken or the egg, can definitely be applied to author branding and the genres across which an author writes. While many authors establish a brand based on the books they write, others write books (especially non-fiction) inspired by an existing brand. Since what we want to write and who we are as people can evolve over time, it becomes hard to tell which came first or which is leading our literary evolution. We might ask ourselves… Do we write in a specific genre because it aligns with our interests, personality, and expertise? Do we limit ourselves to a specific genre because we have already established it as our brand? D…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 197 views
Cassie Pérez: “You still think this is the best place in the world to live?” Detective Inspector Jimmy Pérez: “Yep. Of course I do. I mean to say, on a clear day, you can see Norway over that way.” Cassie Pérez: “There is that.” Detective Inspector Jimmy Pérez: “And . . . you can see Iceland over that way.” Cassie Pérez: “What about shops?” Detective Inspector Jimmy Pérez: “I forgot. We don’t have any of them. . . . We’ve got the sky and the sea, and razorbills and kittiwakes. What more do you want?” —From Shetland, Season 1, Episode 2 “Shetland has always been a place of sanctuary for me. I visited when I dropped out of university, and I just loved it from the …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 149 views
That evening, Professor Wang’s flavour—but not his likeness, which was gone—remained with Sam, a lingering aftertaste as he, Tianliang, and Auntie sat around a chaffing dish full of skewered fish balls, thinly sliced meats, and vegetables, simmering in a spicy sour broth. ‘I ate the other day at Yu Chun, the Northeastern restaurant in the West of the campus,’ Auntie said. ‘I’m surprised I didn’t run into you there.’ From the time she opened the door, Auntie intermittently offered Sam words of welcome and entreatments to guilty for having returned to Beijing without visiting her. Sam felt embarrassed but kept silent in the absence of anything redeeming to say. He had bre…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 160 views
Whether it’s movies like The Game and Ready or Not, dystopian science fiction like Ready Player One, or thrillers like the ones listed below, there’s something fascinating about stories where a game turns deadly. Bit of advice for any character in a book like this: If someone asks if you want to play a game, your go-to answer should be “definitely not.” In my sophomore thriller Blood Will Tell, the six friends gathered near a Northern California ghost town don’t heed that advice. When the alpha in the group suggests they play a drinking game, the others go along with it, despite their misgivings. As often happens, it goes badly. Only five of the friends return home, and …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 141 views
Ever since travelers first bought their place by the fire with accounts of distant lands, stories have served to transport us into worlds beyond our own experience. One may live a thousand lives through fiction, gathering the wisdom of experience with only the flick of a page. And it doesn’t matter if perspectives shift: wry observations of the world as it is become, for future generations, records of what once had been, and the familiarity of the here and now becomes an exotic fantasy. As a child in sultry, tropical Singapore, Agatha Christie was my escape to the cooler climate of the United Kingdom. We had no expansive country houses—or if we did, I certainly wasn’t pr…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 201 views
For writers of fiction and non-fiction, serial killers are the gift that keeps giving. Recently, the New Yorker profiled a French “researcher” and “expert” on serial killers who turned out not to be, and that lovable psychopath Dexter is back on TV for another round of sick mayhem. As a subgenre of both crime fiction and the true crime narratives, serial killer stories provide a vicarious pleasure for readers with the confidence that “it won’t happen to me.” But what if it did? What if the unsolved murder from 1978 of your beloved, vibrant sister may well have been committed by one? In the new book (published in Canada in 2020), Wish You Were Here, John Allore and Patr…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 207 views
Whether you are a timid twelve-year-old, a sixteen-year-old trying to fit in, or a parent, teenagers are terrifying. They love and hate with intensity and often at the same time. Surging hormones, irrational logic, and desire for connection leads to overwrought secrets, volatile relationships, and bad decisions. When I started working on my novel, Sinkhole, I thought a lot about the dangerous emotional lives of teenagers. Ironically, as I worked on the final edits of my book, my son would get involved with someone who was even more dangerous than my antagonist, which is saying something. Sometimes evil appears wearing pink Crocs. In many cases, truth is often more shocki…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 141 views
When I decided to write a cozy mystery, I purposely set out to read a whole bunch of them in a row in order to figure out what type of cozy I wanted to focus on. There are so many, after all—cozies set in cupcake shops and centered around crafts like knitting or quilting, even cozies featuring witches (which would seem like a natural fit, since I’ve written both fiction and nonfiction books about witchcraft). It turned out that there were two different subgenres of cozy mystery that I liked the best. Anything to do with books, like those set in bookstores or libraries, immediately goes to the top of my to-be-checked-out list. But most of all, I loved cozies with animals …
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 212 views
The CrimeReads editors make their picks for the month’s best debut fiction. * Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club (Pegasus) A truly auspicious beginning to a new series featuring an amateur sleuth, Kaveri, operating in 1920s Bangalore, aided by her sharp mind, her husband’s medical practice, and the preconceived notions about who she should be and where she should go. Her first case stems from a murder at a distinguished club, pointing to a nearby brothel and a wealthy Englishman, an investigation that allows Nagendra to show off her skills as a social critic and a first rate mystery novelist. –Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Editor-in-Chief Isabel Cañas, Th…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 230 views
I just realized I’m overdue in paying the very expensive storage fee for my frozen eggs—a fee I have committed to paying into perpetuity, I guess. Five years ago, at age 33, I sat in front of my friend and former boss at a coffee shop and explained that I needed more money. “Why?” she asked, surprised. “Weren’t you just promoted?” I replied that yes, I was just promoted (to a just-over-mid five figure salary), but that being a single person in New York City was difficult, and “What if I want to be a single mother someday?!” “Well,” she said, after a pause. “Let’s get you more money, then.” I am not sure why I became so preoccupied at that time in my life with the hypot…
Last reply by Admin_99, -
- 0 replies
- 216 views
My father, a formidable wrestler and boxer, told me more than once, “Guys size each other up the moment that they meet.” This may not happen consciously; but on some level, they predict the outcome of a fight between them. Men size up other qualities, too: intelligence, talent, competence. Always, a power-heirarchy emerges. Best hitter, fastest runner, best student, most popular—the ranking starts young, and—police chief, pop star, billionaire, President—it never stops. When I worked as a professional musician, power-struggles went on constantly. When I worked as a psychotherapist, most of my male clients were contending with issues of power, or its lack. When I began to…
Last reply by Admin_99,