In April 1945, the end of World War II was finally in sight. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, recently elected to an unprecedented fourth term as president, was at his Warm Springs, Georgia, retreat, sitting for a painting. He reminded the artist that she only had 15 more minutes to work, then complained of a sudden, blinding headache, lost consciousness, and died.

Quite frankly, even someone as suspicious as I would have bought that story, hook, line, and sinker. Roosevelt had been in bad health for years, after a bout with polio left him dependent upon crutches or a wheelchair. The doctors, seeing no real need for an autopsy, decided that it must have been a cerebral hemorrhage.

And so, FDR was buried and Harry S. Truman became president.

[Nothing suspicious about that... or is there?]

The Private Eye is an experiment.

From a creative standpoint, the setting is daring, a strange new future in which all technologies have advanced except for communication and images.

From a distribution standpoint, it’s unprecedented. Writer Brian K. Vaughan and artist Marcos Martin placed the 32-page Issue 1 of The Private Eye up at their site, Panel Syndicate, where it can be downloaded on a “name your price” payment system. The 27-page Issue 2 was released May 7, 2013. The plan is for a 10-issue “old-school maxiseries.”

[Try it and buy it...]

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest…

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the role of Yorick the court jester is little more than a cameo (you couldn’t properly call it a “walk-on”); a nonspeaking role that wouldn’t even qualify you for membership in Actors’ Equity. Yet plenty of people have wanted to play him, even though “poor Yorick” is nothing more than a skull that Hamlet holds and muses upon in Act V, Scene 1.

After all, Yorick is a role you could play…forever.

[I always dreamed of a life in the theater…]

Cuts Through Bone by Alaric Hunt is a contemporary PI novel in the classic PI novel style (available May 14, 2013).

Alaric Hunt’s Cuts Through Bone is a PI mystery with the style and tone of classic PI mysteries, which is probably why it won the 2012 Private Eye Writers of America award for Best First Private Eye Novel.

Hunt’s private investigator is Clayton Guthrie—a man short in stature and heavy on observation. He knows how to talk to snitches and how to break down a case, skills he’s trying to teach his protégé, Rachel Vasquez.

Vasquez, on the other hand, is having a hard time dealing with the tediousness that is real detective work. She considers quitting after a particularly rough morning when in walks one Mr. H.P. Whitridge with a young woman named Michelle Tompkins and the case to end all cases: the Barbie doll murders.

[Oh, you beautiful doll...]

•  Be warned! If you're using social media platform Snapchat, because the photos you send with it are promised to “self-destruct” after a time limit you specify, know that your embarrassing selfies are not safe! According to this Forbes article by Kashmir Hill, an IT forensics firm pulled dozens of supposed-to-be deleted photos from phones. It was frightningly easy...
 
• A heroine from French comics has been turned into a live-action movie by director Luc Besson, and it's got magic, mummies, and a pterodactyl! The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Sec-Blanc features an intrepid novelist in 1911 Paris. It'll be available on DVD in August, but we must say it looks delightful!

• Also coming in late August is the third in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (aka the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy) begun with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. All were directed by Edgar Wright, who shares writing credits with Simon Pegg, who co-stars with Nick Frost. In The World's End, five friends reunite for an epic pub crawl and become humankind's only hope for survival. Bonus Martin Freeman!

In Shotgun Lullaby by Steve Ulfelder, Conway Sax must  help a recovering substance abuser who reminds him a little too much of his estranged son (available May 14, 2013).

The third Conway Sax novel by Steve Ulfelder opens with Conway beating down a guy over a lemon car sold to a new Barnburner, one Gus Biletnikov. In other words, Conway’s still acting as a half-assed investigator-slash-enforcer for the special group of AA members he credits with saving his life. And he’s still doing it with his perfect blend of heart, gruff, and bullheaded luck.

A long time ago, after more tries than you could count, I finally put together some sobriety. A couple of months, my longest dry stretch since I was fourteen.

It was awful. I didn’t know what I was doing. My knuckles were white, my teeth were ground to nubs, my nightmares lasted all day.

It was slipping away, and I knew it. I was feeling shame already over the next backslide. Had a feeling it would be the last one, the one that carried me all the way down.

[When you reach bottom there’s nowhere to go but up...]

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, well with Kate Bufton that is certainly true! She sees books as much more than a mere storage area for words and ideas, but as the starting point for some incredible pieces of artwork.

Based in Warrington, in the North West of England, Kate says her creative side was nurtured by her teachers at school and college. “It was only at university when I started to realise that art and craft are so closely linked, yet so far apart. I consider myself both an artisan and a crafts maker,” she notes.

Kate creates amazing shapes and designs by manipulating old and unwanted books through a variety of cuts and folds. “I love manipulating the pages of the book and transforming the books from a carrier of text to an object of art,” she explains. “The pages take on a whole new and innovative life, forcing the books to be open and the pages to be displayed for all to see.”

[Her life is an open book...]

For years, absinthe was considered far more dangerous than most liquors. In fact, it was banned in both the United States and the EU for nearly a century due to its alleged hallucinogenic qualities. But in fact, it appears that the absinthe itself—the distilled spirit of wormwood—was not responsible for the problems faced by early drinkers. No, the blame would fall to adulterants in either the cheaper forms of the drink or in the mixers.

Today, absinthe can still be dangerous. Especially when mixed with stupidity. Or fire. Or both. A lesson a Russian bartender and patron learned to their combined shock and horror.

The Healer by Antti Tuomainen is a novel of dystopian, futuristic Nordic noir (available May 14, 2013).

Tapani Lehtinen’s wife, Johanna is missing. She’s a reporter and routinely goes out on assignment for days at a time, but always checks in with her husband, and it’s been twenty-four hours since he’s heard from her. After visiting her editor and expressing his concerns, the editor reluctantly tells him that she’s been working on a story about The Healer, a killer who’s been targeting families of high powered men involved in the seeming destruction of the environment, thus being part of the cause of the deteriorating climate of Helsinki and the surrounding areas. The editor is dubious that something bad has happened to Johanna, but seems to soften a bit when Tapani explains the nature of their relationship.

[The heat is on in Helsinki...]

Escapism is one of the appeals of the fantasy genre. It’s a chance to visit a world where impossible things like magic and monsters are real, and to go on epic quests to save the world. It can be just as fun and interesting though to see those elements bump up against real world events such as crime and murder. Generally you only see that collision in fantasy tales set in the modern worlds like Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series. There are a number of authors, though, who have combined the elements of crime and noir with stories set in mythical or ancient realms.

[Crime and Fantasy were made for each other!]

Double Whammy by Gretchen Archer is the first Davis Way Crime Caper novel, a humorous mystery set in Biloxi, Mississippi (available May 14, 2013).

Davis Way is divorced from her ex-ex-husband (so, yes, twice divorced from the same guy), unemployed because her father fired her, not getting along with her mother—which is par for the course, and frustrated. It doesn’t look like things can get much worse. After all, how many restraining orders can one girl face? 

Things start to look up when she finds a job at the Bellissimo, a casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. The grand hotel offers a chance to start over, with a large paycheck and posh surroundings. After a gazillion interviews, Davis is hired to work undercover security, catching safe-cracking thieves and protecting the casino’s hard-earned gains. However, nothing in the Bellissimo is as straightforward or simple as it seems.

First off, the man who seems to be ripping off the Bellissimo’s biggest slot-game—the Double Whammy—is Davis’s ex-ex-husband.

[So nice she divorced him twice...]

At times, Britain’s chief export would seem to be well-crafted television shows in the suspense line. From across the pond, we’ve been given Prime Suspect, Public Enemies, Waking the Dead, and the recent Sherlock. Additionally, we have the mysteries of Inspectors Lewis, Lynley, and Luther (and even some inspectors whose names don’t start with L.)

In the midst of this British Invasion, one series that has perhaps fallen under the radar—despite its excellent writing, impressive acting, and intelligent approach—is the anthology series Accused. Created by Edgar Award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern, it ran two seasons from 2010 to 2012 on BBC for a total of ten hour-long episodes. The series won the International Emmy Award for Best Drama. The fact that it was short-lived (though not for lack of acclaim) makes for an easily consumable packet of probable causes.

[There’s always a story behind the story...]

When I was in high school, the British hard rock band Deep Purple scored a huge comeback hit with the song “Knocking at Your Back Door,” the lead single from their album Perfect Strangers. During the song, a man visits various women, from strippers to aristocrats, late at night and knocks at their back door per their invitation. Obviously, I thought at the time—it’s a song about sex, about illicit sex, maybe even a certain kind of illicit sex. I was a teenager. Every song was about sex. And pretty much all sex was illicit. I didn’t need much help getting there, especially listening to a song that actually used the phrase “cunning linguist.” Even those few ’80s songs that weren’t about sex sure sounded like it to me.

[Did your ears deceive you?]

Little Green by Walter Mosley marks the return of detective Easy Rawlins as he investigates the dark side of L.A.’s 1960s hippie haven, the Sunset Strip (available May 14, 2013).

Little Green by Walter Mosley at last brings back Easy Rawlins, this time from a near-death experience; that experience and the fallout from it is a major element of the novel. The story begins with a journey into mysticism that’s a far cry from the usual hard-boiled nature of the series, while still retaining a dark and bitter tone appropriate to it. Only gradually does the story enter the more familiar world of detective work.

Easy’s back, but he’s also changed; he’s feeling his mortality in ways he didn’t feel it before, and seeing the world changing around him.

[A near-death experience will do that to you...]

We here at Criminal Element are quite appreciative of a good heist tale. So if you have a crack team of criminals and con men that double as illusionists and magicians, you have our attention. Above are the first few minutes of the movie Now You See Me. Watch closely and see if you can spot the trick of the tricks. Also, what card did you pick?

Lucky Bastard by Deborah Coonts is the fourth in the Lucky O’Toole humorous traditional mystery series (available May 14, 2013).

If you’re looking for humor, glitz, and big money, you’ll truly enjoy the Lucky O’Toole Las Vegas series from Deborah Coonts. Lucky Bastard is the fourth book in a series that is funny, sexy, and features a damn good amateur sleuth. It’s been called Sex and the City meets Elmore Leonard. Not a bad description.

There’s no waiting for the action with Lucky Bastard, it opens with a grisly murder scene. A young woman has been left sprawled across the hood of a red Ferrari in the dealership inside Babylon, a top casino-resort in Las Vegas. Perhaps the saddest part of the display is that she was murdered with a stiletto attached to a beautiful red Jimmy Choo.

[What a fashion disaster!]

The process of converting an author’s literary vision and framing key plot points sometimes casually buried in the paragraphs or only hinted at by the writer is no mean feat and it’s a skill that can bring a whole new dimension to a story. It’s also a process that has given vivid life to some books, their cinematic elevation finding them a deserved readership they may never have enjoyed.

Rather than going for a top ten I tried to nail down my ultimate favourite and, after not much deliberation, I quickly settled on the one that, for me, sufficiently captures and delivers what I loved about the novel as well as augmenting the story with the sort of memorable cinematic flair that makes it worthy of repeat viewings.

[You tell us yours and we’ll tell you ours...]

Nursing a habit can lead to dangerous territory, especially when you’re smuggling drugs under said habits. On the Caribbean island of San Andres, three women were stopped by the police after they seemed to be acting...uncomfortable...in their nuns’ habits.

According to Huffington Post, Police Captain Oscar Davila said the three women appeared nervous, and the fabric of their clothing didn’t look right.

When police found more than four pounds of cocaine (two kilos) strapped to the legs of each woman, Davila says all three broke into tears and launched into tales of financial hardship.

The three had just come off a plane from Colombia and were arrested for trafficking. It’s certainly not the strangest way we’ve heard of trafficking drugs—there was the cannon-propelled weed and the meth disguised as Snickers to consider after all—but we can say fewer people will be nursing a habit thanks to this arrest.

Thrillers and mysteries have long been seen as split along gender lines, and for the first seventy years or so of the twentieth century, they actually were.  But things have been changing.

Thrillers were originally written by, for, and about men. The earliest thriller, The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers published in 1903, had not a single female character initially until his publisher forced Childers to add one to the book. Until Ken Follett’s best-selling thriller, The Eye of the Needle, with its female protagonist in 1978, women were only occasional minor characters within thrillers, and the primary readers of thrillers were men. The thriller arose and became popular in the same time period as the western and the hard-boiled detective novel (which grafted the danger and violence of the thriller onto the mystery). All were parts of a male-oriented fiction with the shared elements of idealized male protagonists braving physical danger and escalating threat that built to cathartic endings of explosive violence.

Mysteries, on the other hand, have always had female readers and writers from Louisa May Alcott in the 1860s and her British counterparts, such as Mary Elizabeth Braddon, to Anna Katharine Green in 1878 with the first American best seller of any kind and on into the Golden Age with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, Mignon G. Eberhart, Helen McCloy, Margaret Millar, and many others down to the present moment.

[He read, she read...]

Carved in Darkness by Maegan Beaumont involves a serial killer-rapist, his victim, and her fight to make him pay for his brutal crimes (available May 8, 2013).

The first chapter of this book is very graphic and contains triggers that may bother some readers (the synopsis tells you what you’ll find there). Beyond chapter one, however, the book is highly suspenseful and will keep you reading to the end, even if you skip that first chapter.

Sabrina Vaughn isn’t who she says she is, or at least she wasn’t fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, she was Melissa Walker, but Melissa died at the hands of a serial killer who raped and tortured her for eighty-three days before leaving her body on the grounds of a church. Melissa doesn’t exist anymore except in pieces. Little things like the way Sabrina ties her boots. A few mementoes in a box. A ring on a chain around Sabrina’s neck.

[Girl, reimagined...]