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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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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Dwyer Murphy is a man of letters. Before becoming the editor of CrimeReads, Murphy was a lawyer, a litigator, and an Emerging Writing Fellow at the Center for Fiction in New York City. He also plays a mean game of pickup basketball, or so I hear. What I do know for certain is that Dwyer has written one hell of a debut. An Honest Living sings like a classic from the first page. Every line is packed in tight but still manages to dance all the way up until the novel’s brilliant conclusion. Murphy isn’t just a writer to watch, he’s a writer we’ll all be talking about for a long time to come. Which is just my way of saying, I was more than excited to get to sit down and …
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Eli Cranor is a writer’s writer. That’s a complicated tag to hang on someone and it comes with all kinds of implications and suppositions, so let me get this straight up front, too: He’s written the debut novel of the year: Don’t Know Tough (Soho Press). When your friends ask what book you’re reading, and you know that what they’re really asking is for you to tell them about something that they can get excited about, something they can tell other people in their life about and together all of you will enter into some kind of communion over this new, wonderful, unsettling thing – that book, this year, is quite likely to be Cranor’s new one. It should be anyway. It is for m…
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Even if you’ve never heard of Nita Prose, I’d bet you a milkshake you’ve heard of her mega-bestselling debut, The Maid. I was lucky enough to read The Maid a couple months prior to its publication, long before it became a #1 New York Times bestseller as well as a bestseller in Canada, Australia, Germany, Finland, Croatia, and the UK. Though the book was outside my regular reading wheelhouse—a Clue-like locked-room mystery—the story’s protagonist, Molly Gray, instantly captured my heart. I was so smitten with Molly “The Maid” I passed that early copy along to all my local reading friends. The cover came back tattered, the spine creased, but everyone who read it felt the …
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“James Kestrel” is a pseudonym for the author of Five Decembers, recipient of this year’s Edgar Award for “Best Novel.” The man behind the nom de plume is a successful author in his own right with six published novels already under his belt. He’s also a partner at a Honolulu-based law firm. Oh, and one time he canoed from New Orleans to Mississippi. This was before cell phones, by the way. Before the age of weather calls and GPS. A few months back, I was lucky enough to strike up an online friendship with Kestrel. When we first connected, I didn’t know anything about the pen name. I didn’t know anything about Five Decembers either. I recently tore through the four-h…
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Much like her novels, Jane Harper is a force of nature. A former newspaper reporter, Harper’s big break came after winning a first-novel contest in 2015. Since then, there’s been no stopping her. Harper’s books have sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide. She’s won numerous awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year. Needless to say, I was thrilled to talk shop with such a successful and distinguished crime writer. From Jane’s meticulous planning, to the unique restrictions she enforces on her work space,…
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John Vercher’s debut novel Three-Fifths was nominated for nearly every crime-writing award imaginable after it was published in 2019. Three-Fifths has also been added to the curriculum at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. John’s forthcoming book, After The Lights Go Out (June 2022), is a literary novel that focuses on a mixed-martial arts fighter suffering from dementia. Oh, and John also happens to be a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu himself. But don’t let any of that fool you. John isn’t one of those grind-it-out types of writers. In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth. At times throughout our talk, John’s approach to writing baffled me. I l…
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I’ve been a fan of Jordan Harper’s ever since I first read She Rides Shotgun, his Edgar Award Winning debut novel published back in 2017. I was so taken with that book, I even tweeted out a barrage of my favorite lines as I was reading it. Lines like: “She wore a loser’s slumped shoulders and hid her face with her hair, but the girl had gunfighter eyes.” There were more lines. Way more lines. All from Jordan Harper, this white-knuckle author who dropped double adjectives like atom bombs and wrote sentences sharp enough to cut. Needless to say, I was impressed. So much so I ended up reading She Rides Shotgun a total of four times, trying to suck as much magic as I c…
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Josh Kendall is the executive editor of Mulholland Books. Josh works with some of my current favorite writers: Jordan Harper, Gabino Iglesias, Walter Mosley, Michael Koryta, Joe Landsdale, Michael Farris Smith, and many, many more. With Shop Talk lumbering along into its third year, I decided it might be nice to mix things up. Considering the aforementioned laundry list of all-star authors, Josh seemed like a good place to start. The main goal of this column has always been to delve deeper into the work. That’s what interests me most, how people in this industry make books. How they’re written. How they’re revised. And now, for the first-time in Shop Talk history—how t…
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I first met Katie Gutierrez at the Edgar Awards ceremony in the spring of 2023. I was impressed by her honesty and her kindness. I didn’t know much about her work at that point. I had no clue her debut novel, More Than You’ll Ever Know, had been selected as a Good Morning America Book Club Pick that June. I didn’t know she’d written for Time, or been nominated for a National Magazine Award. I just knew Katie was good people. It wasn’t until I read More Than You’ll Ever Know that I began to understand just how talented Katie really is. Her lines are tight, her characters three-dimensional. On a structure level, Katie’s books are sprawling and experimental in all th…
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In a recent article for CrimeReads, Kelly J. Ford asserted that when asked about their favorite Southern writers, most cishet white men often ramble off “the same old white guys everyone mentions,” and then, at the very end, add Flannery O’Connor. The article is a beautiful, thought-provoking piece of writing, and I hope you’ll give it a read. But the reason I mention it here is to tell you a story. Kelly and I are both from Arkansas. Shortly after that article came out, we were doing an event together at Bookish in Fort Smith. At some point, somebody asked me about my influences, and I rambled off a few names, the last of which was Flannery O’Connor. I shit you not…
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Kellye Garrett spends her days coming up with ways to commit murder. For anybody who’s read her books, that’s probably no surprise. Kellye is the queen of the twist, which makes sense considering her background in screenwriting. A graduate of USC’s famed film school, Kellye spent eight years in Hollywood, including a stint working for the CBS drama Cold Case. Kellye’s the author of Hollywood Homicide, Hollywood Ending, and Like a Sister. She’s been awarded nearly every crime-writing award out there, and is known to give one hell of an acceptance speech! Despite warning me she’d be my “most boring guest yet,” Kellye goes deep into her writing process while offering up pr…
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There’s just something about Laura Lippman. Some unquantifiable X-factor. A raw power, buzzing beneath the surface of the bestselling author’s laid-back demeanor. When we sat down for our talk, it was getting late, a little past nine. Laura stared back at me through my computer screen almost sleepy-eyed. Glass of red wine in hand, she admitted it was nearing her bedtime. I got straight to it, not wanting to waste the time of an author of over twenty books (including the award-winning Tess Monaghan series). It didn’t take long before I realized exactly what it was I’d seen in Laura from the start, that X-factor I mentioned. The following story sums it up much better tha…
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Lisa Unger is the Queen of psychological suspense. She’s hit every bestseller list, been published in thirty-one languages, and sold millions of copies worldwide, all while maintaining her own, distinctive style, a concoction of literary writing and page-turning action that simply screams “Unger.” If it comes as a surprise to hear words like “literary” and “style” used to describe a bestselling author, then you don’t know Lisa. I didn’t know her until just a few weeks ago when I got the chance to peek behind the curtain and see how this master works. My grandma used to say, “The proof’s in the pudding, Eli.” And that adage holds especially true for Lisa. Her proce…
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Shop Talk: Megan Abbott Drinks Two Diet Cokes, Makes Weird Choices, and Keeps on Writing
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Nobody does sports-themed crime better than Megan Abbott. Three of her last six novels (You Will Know Me, Dare Me, and The Turnout, coming out on August 3rd, 2021) have all centered on athletics in some shape or form. As a former coach and player, I can’t help but be a Megan Abbott fan. She nails these particular subcultures with an eye for the gray areas, the blurry spot between the stereotypical cheerleader and what lies behind her ice-blue eyes. Megan is also a prolific author who splits time between writing novels and scripts. Considering her production level, I always assumed Megan’s writing process was akin to that of an Olympic gymnast. Come to find out, I wasn’…
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Michael Koryta is a machine. He published his first book at twenty one and went on to become the New York Times-bestselling author of 14 novels. His work has been translated into more than 20 languages and has won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the Golden Dagger. I came to our “Shop Talk” as a fan of Michael Koryta’s. What I didn’t know, though, was the process behind his staggering production. I didn’t realize just how much of a machine this dude really was. All I knew was that he’d written The Prophet, one of the best crime novels about high school f…
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Peter Swanson is the Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author of eight novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and his most recent, Nine Lives. The further I got into this conversation, the more I realized how well Peter Swanson matched his chosen genre. Peter’s a classic, a throwback, in many ways, to the golden age of mystery novels. From his quaint office in Maine, to his always well-behaved cat, Peter Swanson has all the hallmarks of a mystery novelist. He also has possibly the best justification for why you shouldn’t outline your novel that I’ve ever heard. But we’ll get to that later. Since I was talking t…
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Rachel Howzell Hall is the critically acclaimed author and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist for And Now She’s Gone. A New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister with James Patterson, Rachel is also an Anthony, International Thriller Writers and Left Award nominee. There’s more, a whole lot more to Rachel’s amazing bio and her rise to the very tip top of the crime-writing scene. Take for example, the eleven-year gap between her first published book and her second, or the birth of her daughter and a breast cancer diagnosis. Through it all, Rachel held tight to a passion for writing unlike any I’ve ever encountered before. Rachel’s process is truly inspiring…
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Shawn “S.A.” Cosby is a writer who needs no introduction. He’s everywhere. His latest novel, Razorblade Tears, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Before that, Blacktop Wasteland garnered nearly every accolade imaginable: Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner, New York Times Notable Book, NPR’s Best Books of 2020, and more. Needless to say, I was thrilled to have the chance to sit down and talk “shop” with such a successful author. A dude from the South. Gloucester, Virginia to be exact. I was so excited, I logged into our Zoom meeting ten minutes early. Over an hour later, I was still waiting, staring at my own bald head on the computer screen instead of Shawn’s, w…
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Shop Talk: Steph Cha Writes Yelp Reviews, Works Jigsaw Puzzles, and Always Has a Blanket
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Steph Cha is the author of the Juniper Song crime trilogy, and most recently, Your House Will Pay, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the California Book Award. She’s also a critic whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the current series editor of the Best American Mystery & Suspense anthology. What you may not know, however, is that Steph is also an avid dissectologist. So deep is her love for jigsaw puzzles, she actually tackled a 5,000-piece puzzle while under quarantine due to the pandemic. Naturally, that seemed like the perfect place to start our “Shop Talk.” Steph Cha: Oh, yeah. I lo…
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The first time Stephen Mack Jones and I corresponded, it was because of the Newport and Gwent Literary Club, which describes itself as “probably the oldest literary club in Wales.” I’d seen Steve post something on Twitter about the N&GLC and reached out to him. True to form, Steve responded almost immediately, recalling how these “baronesses and knighted U.K. military” had welcomed him into their club soon after his debut novel was released. Looking back on that exchange, I guess I thought it was strange that this sexagenarian crime novelist from Detroit was somehow involved with a literary club across the pond. Now that I’ve had the chance to get to know Steve a li…
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I’ve never been one for “year-end” lists. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s because I’ve always been too busy rushing forward to look back. All that rushing and hustling has gotten me here, though, to the year I’ve been chasing since I first started writing. My debut novel came out last March. I marked so many items off my author bucket list in 2022. I also got to meet nearly all of my literary heroes, thanks to this column. I started “Shop Talk” because this was the content I looked for in author interviews. I wanted to know how authors put the black on the white. How they structured their lives to do this thing we do. Thanks to CrimeReads, I was able to interview my…
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The first time I met Wanda Morris, we talked, in depth, about body odor. I won’t go into the details, but it was the sort of conversation that sticks with you. The same is true of Wanda. She’s a bestselling author, a lawyer, and a mother of three. Wanda’s stories mirror her life. They’re infectious and down to earth. Above all, they’re real. Readers and critics agree. Wanda’s work has won numerous awards. She’s received praise from every major media outlet. And, if that weren’t enough, her first novel All Her Little Secrets was recently optioned for a limited series starring Emmy-award winning actress Uzo Aduba. Needless to say, I was thrilled to talk shop with Wan…
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Back when I was a football coach, I used to call other coaches and “talk shop.” I wanted to know how they ran their practices, which plays they called on third and long. I wanted to know everything. Now that I’m a writer, not much has changed. Anytime I get a chance to meet up with other authors, I always want to talk shop. “Shop Talk” is a column where I’ll chat with some of today’s leading crime writers about how they put the black on the white. We’ll cover everything from office setup to what a regular workday looks like, and all stops in between. For the first installment of “Shop Talk,” I sat down with William Boyle, author of the novels Gravesend, The Lonely Witne…
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