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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Sometimes that big romance just doesn’t work out. You might wake up one day and realize you’re no longer compatible with your partner. Either that, or you’ve woken up to discover an FBI SWAT team stacking outside your front door, and you need to leap out the nearest window before the heat puts you in cuffs or shoots you down in the street. Yes, that’s just the way many romances end these days, and you can’t get upset about it. After all, you chose to disregard that sage advice about never getting attached to anything you’re not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat. How did you get into this situation in the first place? Maybe you took too much advice from Michael …
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On January 6th, 1972, inside a small Staten Island diner, a former physician from Willowbrook State School met secretly with a reporter. After describing the horrible conditions he had been fired for trying to improve at the state-run institution, he handed the reporter a key to one of the buildings. That reporter was Geraldo Rivera. With that clandestine key, he would lead a film crew unannounced into Building #6 at Willowbrook, where they would capture the appalling abuses, filth, and overcrowding inflicted upon its residents. This year, 2022, marks the 50th anniversary of when Rivera’s television exposé shocked the nation with that horrifying, raw footage. It sparked …
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Mysteries and detective fiction are usually thought of as the inventions of Edgar Allan Poe, but the truth is that they have both been popular in China for over a thousand years. The Chinese have no clear place or person of origin for mysteries and detective fiction, the way the West has Poe, but what the Chinese do have are centuries’ more mysteries and detective stories than the West does. The first Chinese proto-mysteries—that is, mysteries who some but not all of the elements of modern mystery fiction—were the “gong’an” (“court case”) stories. Told in the form of oral performances and puppetry shows, the gong’an began appearing during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1…
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Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap is the longest-running West End play in history. It opened in 1952 and has played continuously in its original production in its original theater since then (except for a mandatory fourteen-month break when all the West End theaters closed due to COVID). It has been seen by more than ten million people. But the characters of the new film See How They Run do not know this yet. The film, directed by Tom George and written by Mark Chappell, is set on the night of the one-hundredth performance of The Mousetrap, in 1953. Richard Attenborough (Harris Dickinson) is the lead, playing the detective. His wife, the actress Sheila Sim (Pearl Chanda), …
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We are excited to host the cover reveal of S. A. Cosby’s latest novel, All the Sinners Bleed, forthcoming from Flatiron Books in June 2023. S. A. Cosby was kind enough to answer a few questions to go along with the cover reveal. Scroll to the bottom to see the cover. Congratulations on winning the Anthony Award for Best Novel two years in a row! How does it feel? S. A. Cosby: Surreal, especially when you look at who I was nominated with. Every book in my category is an instant classic. I’m so honored. You’re one of a few writers redefining rural noir, especially for stories set in the South. What does rural noir, or Southern noir, mean to you? SA: I think it’s the go…
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Female friendships can build us up, tear us down, define us, or destroy us. From best friends to toxic friends, having such a wide range of possible dynamics makes it the perfect fit to include in thriller and suspense stories. Is the best friend going to help the main character bury the body? Or are they the reason a person is dead? Are they going to air someone’s dirty secrets? The opportunities are endless, and a lot of readers can relate to the relationships forged in these stories on some level, even in extreme scenarios. In our novel, When She Disappeared, a female friendship plays an integral part of the story and our main character, Margo’s, evolution. After Margo…
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Rudyard Kipling brought sex to the movies. The author of “Gunga Din,” “The Man Who Would Be King” and “The Jungle Book” didn’t intend to do it, but he certainly bears some responsibility for the morass of cinematic depravity in which we so happily wallow today. However inadvertent his contribution, he helped create the screen’s first seductress, a woman as “wicked as fresh red paint.” Her career was brief and almost all of her films have been lost, but in her day, she was one of the world’s most popular stars. It happened this way. At 32, Kipling had published several volumes of stories and poems and was enjoying wide-ranging popular and critical success. After travel…
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We only seem smarter than fictional characters when we’re indulging in horror. No one watching a crime drama or a romantic comedy sees characters walk into a deserted house says to their screen, Look out, that place is haunted! We only do it with the foreknowledge of Something Bad Happened Here, even though there are more present fears in a crime drama between serial killers, organized gangs, and murderous cops than a ghost. Except when that’s not the case. Sometimes the crime layer peels and reveals more horrific muscle underneath. Crime and horror, especially the occult, have a long-entwined history. Sometimes it’s a ruse like Sherlock Holmes faces in The Hound of the …
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I sometimes use movies to talk about books. In my experience, particularly in classroom settings, it’s easy to point to the story structure of a popular film that most, if not all, those present have seen, then compare it to a book that maybe hasn’t made the rounds. It’s not an uncommon practice. As any Black horror writer is aware of post-2017. That was the year Jordan Peele’s Get Out premiered and knocked the entire filmmaking industry back on its heels. “I would’ve voted for Obama for a third term.” The teacup. The Sunken Place. And, my favorite moment, “Where are those keys, Rose?” It is a fantastic film I revisit often. It was certainly the springboard for what we m…
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In 1990, when I was in law school, my Jessup International Moot Court team won the award for writing the best legal brief in the world. Proud and honored, I remember thinking that if I could accomplish this, I bet I could write a novel as well. Writing as a means of creative expression had always intrigued me, but I considered that pursuit far above my abilities. So, I spent the next two decades practicing law but also studying the craft of writing, working on a manuscript in my spare time. In that time, I learned that being a lawyer brought with it some important advantages when it came to writing mysteries and thrillers, but it also brought enormous obstacles that had t…
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When I went to see the new Bond film No Time to Die last year, I was surprised to find that Rami Malek’s character, the supervillain Safin, had visible facial scars. In recent years, Bond films and indeed broader cinema have been criticised for using facial scars, burns or marks as shorthand for villainy. When the British Film Institute announced in 2018 that it would no longer fund films that featured scarred villains, I thought this trope had been put to pasture—but clearly I was wrong. No Time to Die has not one but two such villains, the other being Blofeld played by Christoph Waltz. The film reminded me of another oft-used villain in both cinema and literature: the …
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The CrimeReads editors select the month’s best debut fiction. * Rijula Das, Small Deaths (Amazon Crossing) Rijula Das’ sweeping novel of sex workers and the quest for human dignity is bitterly cynical, surprisingly humorous, and astonishingly beautiful. Lalee lives and works in Calcutta’s red light district, where she barely scrapes by. The murder of a popular courtesan is a chance to note the indifference of police, but gives her an opportunity to assume the dead woman’s life and clientage. Will she lose herself in the heady world of the elite? Or will she face dangers that she could never imagine? Why was the elite sex worker murdered, and what did she know about …
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If there’s anything this Florida girl loves more than the silken sands of Siesta Key Beach, it’s the changing of the seasons—more specifically, the changing of the leaves. For better or worse, my knowledge of the photosynthesis-induced light show our arboreal friends treat us to every autumn extends no further than what I learned in elementary school (something about the sun…becoming food?), but what I can tell you is a close second to my excitement over the ~foliage~ is the brand-new crop (see what I did there?) of true-crime podcasts coming our way this fall. Grab your PSL and your coziest #fallfeels sweater and settle in for some downright chilling ear treats. Fed …
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One of the reasons I love writing cozies is because they are written in series. While each book is a complete and complex mystery that can be read on its own, my series offer readers a sense of familiarity regarding the picturesque town I’ve created where everyone knows everyone else. They enjoy reading about problems, issues, and events that sometimes pit one character against another and often end in murder. Cozy readers are especially drawn to the characters in cozy series, often viewing them as friends or as people they wish were their friends. They enjoy reading about their personalities and foibles, their growth, their relationships, and their pasts. Ensconced in …
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Clarence Darrow was asleep on the night of Saturday, May 31, when the doorbell of his Chicago apartment started to buzz incessantly. His wife, Ruby, answered the door: a frustrated Jacob Loeb, Richard’s uncle, had come to see the famed trial attorney. Both the Leopold and Loeb families had been surprisingly cavalier about the position of their sons, apparently unable to understand just how much trouble Richard and Nathan were in. There was, in 1924, no Miranda law that defendants had to be warned about making statements or had a right to legal counsel while being questioned, and the pair spoke freely, confessing, helping to gather evidence that could be used against them,…
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When I was in college, my dad had a plaque on his desk at work, with the saying, “Tell me what company you keep and I’ll tell you what you are.” – Miguel de Cervantes. I can’t even guess how many times I read that plaque. But I was eighteen and its wisdom was lost on me. And after a while those words merely became part of the landscape of my father’s office. Just words. I was too young to understand—or care—about a deeper meaning. It would take me decades to understand why my father, a college professor, kept that plaque on his desk and to understand the message he was trying to share with all the young people who passed through his office, to understand how impacting…
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If I were to sum up what makes a cozy mystery in just one word, the word I would choose is connection. Yes, cozies have other characteristics, including no graphic violence, no profanity, and no overt sexual behavior, but at their core these stories are about how we connect with one another. It’s these connections and the loyalties that come with them that motivate the protagonist to try to solve the crime. It’s these same bonds—or lack of them—that motivate others to help or hinder these efforts. And one of the reasons cozy mysteries are so popular with readers is because they feel a connection to the characters as well. Traditionally, cozy mysteries are set in a small …
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It may not be cooling down yet, but it’s gothic season, baby! And dark academia season, and social horror season, and folk horror season, and winter thriller season, and contemplative psychological suspense season—those are just a few of the trends I’m seeing in the books coming out over fall and winter. For more cozy fireside reading, there’s also plenty of fair play mysteries and historical fiction to round out the end of your year, with a few nonfiction titles sprinkled in. I’ve also included more of a sneak preview of next year’s titles than usual for a fall reading list, but that’s because I and my fellow CrimeReads editors just couldn’t wait to talk about them. As i…
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In this series, our editor Olivia Rutigliano rereads every Sherlock Holmes story, and puts together a small close-reading. This week: “The Boscombe Valley Mystery” from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892). ___________________________________ It’s humid today in New York City, where I live, so I read “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” a Sherlock Holmes story that is very much about barometric pressure. Holmes obsessively refers to a barometer while he is out and about in Herefordshire, investigating a local murder—he is checking the atmospheric pressure because he is concerned that, if it rains, the outdoor crime scene will be completely ruined. But the story’s omnipr…
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Where were you in the spring of 1987? What were you up to? If you were Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Susan Dunlap, Betty Francis, Sara Paretsky, Charlotte MacLeod, Kate Mattes, and Nancy Pickard, you were at Sandra Scoppettone’s place, plotting the creation of Sisters in Crime, with a founding commitment to “helping women who write, review, buy or sell crime fiction.” Why plotting, you ask? I’m being facetious. While it’s obvious now to our 21st-century sensibilities that parity, at a minimum, in any professional space is vital, the creation of Sisters in Crime was met at the time with acrimony in some quarters—not to mention derision, denigration, and denial. Plotting was t…
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There’s no point in heaping more praise on the 1934 film The Thin Man, frequently cited as one of the best films of all time. It’s made several of the American Film Institute’s top lists, and film critics and scholars such as Roger Ebert, Leonard Maltin, and Pauline Kael have given in high marks–in some cases, their highest. From the first screenings, audiences were dazzled by William Powell and Myrna Loy as wealthy socialites Nick and Nora Charles, and since the film heartily invited sequels (Nick keeps insisting his career as a detective is over, but Nora keeps urging him to continue sleuthing), MGM obliged and gave moviegoers five more films with Powell and Loy reprisi…
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There are few characters in storytelling that are more maligned and misunderstood than the witch. She is most often seen as grotesque and terrifying in children’s stories (not to mention that, yes, she is almost always female), and is willing to do just about anything, including eating wayward children, to retain her beautiful glow. The Evil Queen in Snow White disguised herself as the hideous witch to trick the guileless heroine with a poison apple so she could remain the fairest in the land. Ursula in The Little Mermaid steals Ariel’s voice to become young and beautiful (and let’s not forget thin). It is pretty clear that our most early interactions with the idea of a w…
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Dystopian futures dominated by malevolent artificial intelligence have long been a mainstay in science fiction. From the coldly calculating HAL 9000 of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to Arnold Schwartzenegger’s iconic portrayal of the Terminator to HBO’s Westworld, we thrill at the prospect of being overwhelmed by our own creations. In fact, the very first science fiction novel, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, was born out of the fear that the then-nascent industrial revolution would unleash titanic forces beyond our control. That it hasn’t happened yet has done little to diminish popular interest in the topic. Ray Kurzweil, chief futurist at Google and the most …
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If I could only recommend one movie from this past month, it would be Confess, Fletch, a movie of epic coolness and smoothness featuring Jon Hamm in his best role in a long time. It is so relentlessly enjoyable that I was positively shocked it didn’t have a wider release. Indeed, if you want to see it, you’ll have to hustle over to some faraway theater to catch a showing, or (like me) ride a million escalators to the top floor of the Times Square AMC, but it will be worth it, I promise you. Confess, Fletch, directed by Greg Mottola and co-written by Mottola and Zev Borow, is an adaptation of Gregory Mcdonald’s 1976 novel of the same name, the third in his series about a …
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A look at the week’s best new releases. * Vinaya Bhagat, The Girl in the Mist (Agora) “A fun and engaging plot, with a stimulating and gratifying read, and looks to be on the way to be a bestseller.” –The Free Press Journal Laurie Loewenstein, Funeral Train (Kaylie Jones Books) “The sequel to Death of a Rainmaker . . . is just as atmospheric. The anguish and struggles of the Dust Bowl and Depression years are vividly depicted in this historical mystery.” –Library Journal Ava Barry, Double Exposure (Pegasus) “The plot of this exhilarating and intricate novel ebbs and flows between fast-paced action and relaxed moments of narrative exposition.” –Bookli…
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