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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Summer is coming, and mystery and thriller lovers are looking for that perfect beachy read to savor with an umbrella drink in hand. How about a story set in paradise? Suspense novelists have long been attracted to idyllic settings. What is it about the concept of paradise that inspires dark fiction? Is it the vicarious joy of writing about white sand beaches and shimmering blue water? Is it the irresistible lure of an escape from reality? Or maybe we writers like the diabolical appeal of inflicting mayhem on a cast of unsuspecting tourists. To me, the most appealing aspect of a writing a suspense novel set in paradise is the challenge of creating a story world where not…
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As an immigrant, I often seek out works of literature reflecting issues that might arise with moving to a new country, especially if it’s at a young age. I was five when my family left Ukraine and arrived in the Midwest, and as such, I did not always find it easy to relate to mainstream literature and television. Nearly every Russian or Ukrainian character I saw was a mobster or a prostitute. Where are all the stories about regular Russian people? I often wondered. Then I would think: I guess I need to write one! (Which I did, At the End of the World, Turn Left) Nowadays, there are more books written by Jewish refugees from the USSR—Gary Shteyngart is a popular example—o…
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What is it about the sea that has made it a literary obsession since The Odyssey? For me, it’s the mystery, the thrill of adventure, the fear of the horrible beasts lurking under the waves, and the dangerous men lying in wait just over the horizon. It’s the visceral feel of the wind and the waves, the raw smells of saltwater mixed with fuel and fish and fear, where the weather is a capricious character, and the ships are lonely fortresses against the unknown. But I find the strongest appeal in how the sea shapes and reveals a person’s character; it can raise men and women to the heights of courage or plunge them into the depths of madness. Who doesn’t know their names: …
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One of the things I love most about thrillers is that the stakes are always so high—never more so than when the mystery or conflict threatens a supposedly sturdy relationship that’s central to the protagonist’s identity. Often, in domestic suspense, that relationship is a marriage, but perhaps there’s even more on the line when it’s a friendship that’s jeopardized. After all, love comes and goes, but friendship is forever. Right? In my latest thriller, Thicker Than Water, Julia and Sienna are not only sisters-in-law, but best friends and business partners, too. They believe that theirs is a perfect, unbreakable bond—until, that is, the man who connects them (husband to o…
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There’s something so satisfying about meeting a person and thinking, “She really does look like a Jenny!” Most people receive their names as a newborn baby, so it seems like the probability of the name and the person being a good match would be very small. Yet I feel like I meet a lot of Kevins who just really seem like Kevins. Is it that people take on personalities to fit their names? Or do we change our idea of a name to suit the person? For that reason, I believe one of the most important decisions you can make in creating a character is their name. For example, would Ebenezer Scrooge have been as intimidating if his name were, say, Jimmy Pop? Would Mary Shelley’…
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CrimeReads editors select the month’s best new nonfiction crime books. * Dirty Gold: The Rise and Fall of an International Smuggling Ring By Jay Weaver, Nicholas Nehamas, Jim Wyss, and Kyra Gurney (PublicAffairs) Dirty Gold is an eye-opening, compulsively readable investigation into the world of illegally-mined gold and the business networks that prop that system up. From a team of Miami Herald reporters who first exposed the South Florida businessmen trafficking in gold taken out of illicit Peruvian operations, this book will change the way you look at the precious metal, which fuels an underworld trade more lucrative than cocaine, with devastating humanitarian c…
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When I set out to write my first Christie Bookshop Mystery, I did what fiction writers do. I made stuff up. A cozy setting, loosely based on my favorite Colorado ski towns. A family bookshop in a historic chalet, complete with a friendly cat, a maze of shelves, and fireside reading. Two bookseller sisters named Christie, sadly no relation to their favorite author. Then, murder strikes. The Christie sisters leap into action. They summon their inner Miss Marples and call on all they’ve learned from reading Agatha Christie. I realized I’d have to act too. My protagonists knew way more than I did about Agatha Christie. Sure, I thought I knew her, but I was no expert, no …
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From the recent declassification of archival documents, to the high stakes, to the clear delineation between good and evil in the war between Allied and Axis powers, the popularity of WWII-set fiction endures. Writing fiction allows authors to imagine dialogue and fill in the blank spaces left by incomplete records, but to be able to do so with authenticity, they draw heavily on memoir, autobiography, and biography. In researching the real-life superheroines Virginia d’Albert-Lake and Violette Szabo, for Sisters of Night and Fog, there were many riveting works of nonfiction by and about the women and those in their networks. These accounts were a tremendous help in under…
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IN THE GALAXY of New York City nightclubs, the Copacabana burned brightest. Getting in wasn’t easy. Celebrities, socialites, and sports stars all jockeyed for a coveted table amid the faux palm trees. But one particular patron never had a problem. When he made his entrance—striding briskly, confidently, and with a slight smile—a frisson of excitement rippled through the crowd. Patrons of the club knew exactly who he was. Asked where he sat when he went to the Copa, Sonny Franzese—handsome and charismatic underboss of the Colombo family—smiled and said, “Wherever I wanted.” Sonny frequented all the city’s top clubs, but he felt most at home at the Copacabana, with its r…
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One lovely dawn in late August, the sun was cresting the tops of the distant hills to pour its golden light over the forest. Gladys Honeysuckle, always an early riser, was already on the wing, more than halfway into her daily journey toward town. She was a hummingbird (as her name implied), and her bright green wings were always in motion, going about a hundred miles an hour. Her tongue seemed no different. Gladys had something of a reputation as the town gossip. Conveniently, she was well employed by the Shady Hollow Herald, the town’s sole newspaper, where she wrote a regular column about town events and goings-on. Not a prestigious post, perhaps, but one suited to her …
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A stranger comes to town. He is stern, quiet, with a whiff of criminality, seductive to women and men alike, his life like an arrow shooting him onward. He meets a family, he befriends a boy, he almost falls for another man’s wife, and then he saves them all in a burst of gunfire. Rider from Nowhere first appeared in serial in Argosy magazine, but by the time it reached book form, it bore the name of its emblematic lead character, Shane. Jack Schaefer’s 1949 novel sold 12 million copies. George Stevens’ blockbuster 1953 movie led a pack of Western films racing across the 1950s, including The Gunfighter, Man of the West, High Noon, The Man from Laramie, 3:10 to Yuma, and …
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The best journalism movies emphasize dogged research and writerly integrity, with “Truth” clearly framed as the guiding principle and ultimate purpose of such investigations, and “justice” as its primary effect. She Said follows suit, but it also develops a highly personal and empathetic tone—more social and compassionate and intimate, more Spotlight and less All the President’s Men or The Post. The film, directed by Maria Schrader, is about how two New York Times reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, broke the story about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long pattern of abusing and assaulting his female employees and colleagues. Essential to the film’s t…
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While I was still trying to figure out what to do with the mystery animal I’d rescued from the dumpster, cops were working my door like a speed bag, eager as hell to tell me my wife had been found dead in a guitar case. I opened up to stop the pounding and found three righteous knuckleheads perched on my porch, rocking back and forth on their shoes. One big, one small, with a medium-sized buzzcut standing in the middle. The two bookends were bright blue, wringing the hats in their hands real noble, while the middle guy was the porridge that was just “white” apparently, wearing the sharp suit, bright shirt with a starched collar, and a blood-red power tie that divided him …
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A beautiful woman with a glorious voice, dressed in well-fitted breeches dueling the villain between arias. It sounds like a Gilded Age gentleman’s opera fantasy, but it’s really a dream come true for a mystery writer looking for a unique idea. Best of all, it’s based on reality. Not just the reality of trouser roles, but the reality of Gilded Age New York—and its people. Let’s start on the stage. In the early days of opera, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there were a good number of castrati singers, men with artificially high voices for exactly the reason the name suggests. Amazingly enough, that wasn’t a popular career choice for long. By the end of the eig…
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Those of us who write series novels generally spend a lot of time thinking about our characters’ background—where do they come from, what is their education, their taste in food and music, what jobs have they held? Some writers work out entire biographies of the characters, filled with details that may never make it into a story, but that feel necessary for their creator to know. How can our characters be vivid, we wonder, how can they move and talk and appear in three dimensions, if there are parts of their history that even their author doesn’t know? Thirty years ago, I published The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, the first episode in what became the Mary Russell & Sherlo…
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There’s a huge gulf in Sherlock Holmes’s biography. Backstory. Probably Freud’s fault. Wanting to know whether we were in love with our mothers or had killed our fathers. That is to say, that every character—every modern character—needs a backstory, according to today’s practice, all worked out by a writer (or an actor), even if the details of the backstory are never actually revealed to the audience. Adds depth, don’t you know? It didn’t use to be the case. We’re not concerned with Hamlet’s childhood, or Faust’s, or Quixote’s. And none of them felt the need for 23and me. But those days are gone. Now we want to know a character from the inside out. Now we even want (th…
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Bonnie MacBird is regarded as one of the top Sherlock Holmes writers, and her five Sherlock Holmes Adventures for HarperCollins have developed a following. Frank Cho is a top Marvel artist whose cover illustrations are legendary. Together they have collaborated on WHAT CHILD IS THIS? – a Sherlock Holmes Christmas novella. A Holiday pick by both the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, WHAT CHILD IS THIS? is newly out in paperback for Christmas 2023. It is a delightful and unique entry into the Holmesian world – written by Bonnie and beautifully illustrated by Frank. Bonnie and Frank explain how the collaboration came about. BONNIE: The Baker Street Irregulars (B…
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Once a week this summer, Bobby Santovasco and his best pal Zeke head down by the Belt Parkway to throw things at the cars getting off at the Bay Parkway exit near Ceasar’s Bay shopping center. Bobby’s just turned fourteen. Zeke is thirteen. They like stealing CDs from Sam Goody and cigarettes from Augie’s Deli and playing video games in Zeke’s basement. They both have a crush on Carissa Caruso from Stillwell Avenue. They’re both headed into eighth grade at St. Mary Mother of Jesus on Eighty-Fourth Street. Bobby was left back in third grade, so he’s a little older than everyone else in his class. Their teacher is going to be Mrs. Santillo, who Bobby heard fart during the …
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It’s that time of the year again, and, no, I’m not talking about the holidays. I’m talking about year-end-list time. Just like the holidays, year-end lists can be anxiety inducing, especially for authors. So, as a reprieve from everybody and their Uncle Bob’s “Favorite Books of 2023,” I’d like to offer you something a little less stressful. Something that might help you become a better writer. Over the course of this last year, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing eleven outstanding crime writers for “Shop Talk.” We’ve covered everything from haunted office spaces to the importance of daily naps. If you happened to miss one of the entries, you’re in luck. Below yo…
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New York Times bestselling author Ace Atkins gave me the title for this column five years ago. My family and I were on a trip down to Pensacola Beach. I’d just gotten out of coaching and started writing seriously. The only author I “knew” was Ace. We’d met back in 2010 at the Yoknapatawpha Writers’ Workshop in Oxford, Mississippi. Ace and I were former college football players. We hit it off instantly. Once the conference was over, however, we didn’t keep up much. I was coaching high school football and Ace was publishing two novels a year (along with his Quinn Colson series, Ace has also carried on Robert B. Parker’s iconic Spenser character for the last decade). Fast…
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By day, Alex Segura is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Oni Press, with previous stints at Archie Comics and DC Comics. By night, he’s the acclaimed author of award-winning novels, comic books, short stories, and podcasts. Somewhere in the midst of such a heavy workload, Alex is also a husband and a father. If that sounds like a lot, then you don’t know Alex Segura. You don’t know his secret… Alex Segura is a superhero! Shhh. Don’t tell anybody, but I’m serious. This guy is magic, especially when it comes to other authors and their work. It’s fitting, then, that Alex’s next book, Secret Identity (Flatiron Books, March 2022), features “The Lethal Lynx…
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The first time I met Brendan Slocumb, I was flabbergasted. It was late 2021. We’d both been selected for a Library Journal panel featuring debut novelist. Nita Prose and Eva Jurczyk, two soon-to-be superstars, were also in the mix. I was nervous. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Then Brendan started talking . . . He had the voice, a beautiful, buttery baritone. He had the look, tattooed forearms peeking out from under rolled up sleeves. And he had the backstory, a concert violinist turned author. Like I said, I was flabbergasted, watching as Brendan wove all the aforementioned assets into a thrilling introduction of himself and his debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy. …
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Danya Kukafka is the nationally bestselling author of Girl in Snow and Notes on an Execution. I first met Danya a few months back at the Edgars. It was a brief, two-ships-passing-in-the-night sort of moment. Danya had just had her picture taken in front of the Poe-themed backdrop, and I was next in line. We smiled. We nodded. That was it. But then, a few hours later, Danya was up on stage, giving a supremely moving speech as she accepted the Edgar for “Best Novel.” I was already a huge fan of her sophomore book Notes on an Execution (seriously, if you haven’t read this, it’s a genre-bending, transcendent masterpiece), but that speech, the message she delivered — it m…
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David Heska Wanbli Weiden is a Renaissance man. Not only did he write Winter Counts, a book which won nearly every crime-writing award last year, David also holds an MFA degree, a law degree, and a Ph.D. As if that weren’t enough, Dr. Weiden is also a tenured professor of Native American Studies and Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Oh, yeah, he also teaches MFA classes on the side. I was more than thrilled to talk shop with such an erudite author. I might’ve even been a little nervous. Turns out, David’s kindness far exceeds his education. Which makes complete sense once you hear his amazing story. Eli Cranor: What’s your writerly origin st…
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David Joy is the author of the novels The Weight Of This World, The Line That Held Us, When These Mountains Burn, and Where All Light Tends to Go, which will be made into a film directed by Ben Young, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Robin Wright. This installment of Shop Talk ventures well off the beaten path. That makes a lot of sense, considering David lives way up in the mountains of North Carolina. So far out, he had to drive twenty miles just to call me via Zoom. He’d also gotten tied up with some ducks the day before, which seems like the perfect spot to kick this thing off. Eli Cranor: Tell me about these ducks? David Joy: There’s a guy had a bunch of these Peki…
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