GIFnotes: Giving you the basic plot summary of an upcoming book with the help of the Graphics Interchange Format.

This week, take a visual tour of the fourth and final book in the Highway Quartet from C. J. Box, Paradise Valley!

[Like CliffsNotes, but more fun...]

American Static by Tom Pitts is a fast-paced crime thriller set against the backdrop of Northern California's wine country, Oakland's mean streets, and San Francisco's peaks and alleys, written by a man who knows the underbelly of the city like no one else.

In classic noir stories—fiction or film—it only takes one bad decision or one wrong turn on the highway or one chance encounter with the wrong person to completely upend a life. A life unruffled and mostly stress-free can turn into a nightmare real fast. Such is the case in Tom Pitts’s novel American Static, a book that starts with a mugging at a roadside bus station and never once slackens after that. 

The victim of that mugging, a teenager named Steven, accepts help on the spot from the man who offers it. And this one choice made by Steven—an understandable choice at that—leads him into a world brand new to him, where danger and betrayal and death are the norms.

[Read Scott Adlerberg's review of American Static...]

Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most!

A new Liz Talbot Mystery from Susan M. Boyer and the latest psychological suspense thriller from Fiona Barton highlight some great books! See what else we're reading this week:

[See this week's Top 5...]

Read an excerpt from Shark Island by Chris Jameson (available July 4, 2017)!

William Shaw is a novelist and award-winning pop culture journalist. He has regularly written for the UK’s Observer and Independent as well as the New York Times. Mr. Shaw’s books include the series titles She’s Leaving Home, The Kings of London, and A Song for the Brokenhearted. His newest, The Birdwatcher (available June 27, 2017), is a standalone published by Mulholland Books.

Recently, the Sussex, England-based author generously indulged a few curiosities about branching out from series books, creating complex characters, learning the nuances of birdwatching, and the differences between British and American crime novels, among other topics.

[Read the full Q&A below!]

The Child by Fiona Barton is a brand new novel of twisting psychological suspense from the author of the New York Times bestseller The Widow.

It’s always refreshing to see a woman in her 50s portrayed as wonderfully as Fiona Barton portrays journalist Kate Waters. Kate has a definite Mary Tyler Moore vibe going on, if you zipped her forward to 2012. When she catches wind of a baby’s skeleton that’s been found at a construction site, her ears perk up immediately:

Kate Waters loved a needle-in-a-haystack job. The glint of something in the dark. Something to absorb her totally. Something to sink her teeth into. Something to get her out of the office.

She’s determined to sink her teeth into a new story, a juicy one, and she squeezes everything she can out of the little bit of information she has.

[Read Kristin Centorcelli's review of The Child...]

Last week, we closed out Song of Susannah on somewhat of an anticlimactic ending. This week, Stephen King flexes his writing muscles with a thrilling and chilling opening to the final book in the series, The Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower is very close, but our ka-tet is spread far and wide. Roland and Eddie are in 1977 where they have just finished meeting with the author Stephen King. In 1999, Father Callahan and Jake are about to storm The Dixie Pig lounge where Susannah is being held along with Mia, who is about to give birth to an unholy demon: this child has the DNA combo of Roland and Susannah and a “co-father” in the Crimson King. So, we are very close to our destination, the stakes are high, and it’s anybody’s guess who will live to see The Dark Tower.

*Remember: While this is a reread, please avoid spoilers in the comments. The point is to get there together!

The Dark Tower looms on the horizon for both our ka-tet and you, our loyal readers, as we count down the days to the premiere of The Dark Tower film. The plan is to finish the series on the Tuesday before the premiere, so we'll be splitting The Dark Tower into four sections (about 200 pages each) and meeting here at our usual time (Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET) to discuss major themes, motifs, and reactions. Make sure to bookmark the HQ page for the schedule and links to all of the chapter discussions as they go live! This week, Jake and Callahan storm the Dixie Pig as we close out the sixth Dark Tower book! Join us in the comments for a discussion of Part IV of Song of Susannah: 12th Stanza: “Jake and Callahan” – Coda: “Pages from a Writer's Journal”!

CrimeHQ's The Dark Tower Reread

[Our journey has reached its final leg...]

My very first career goal, at age eight, was to be Nancy Drew. Later, the first of my many college majors was criminal justice. Then came English, followed by drama and astronomy. I had a hard time settling on something. My dreams were of investigating crime or writing about it.

My parents were unenthusiastic, to say the least, about both of these pursuits. They wanted me to have a career that wouldn't involve carrying a gun or spending another ten years in their house while I wrote a novel and chased publication. They admonished me frequently and emphatically, telling me to “Get your mind on something sensible.” I settled on Computer Business Systems.

Programming computers is based on logic. Algorithms appealed to the part of my brain that likes solving puzzles and mysteries. But years later, when the company I worked for went out of business, I jumped at the chance for a career change. My inner Nancy Drew wanted out.

[I think all of our inner Nancy Drews want out...]

Read Jonathan F. Putnam's exclusive guest post about Elijah Lovejoy, the anti-slavery martyr that inspired his latest Lincoln & Speed historical mystery, and make sure to sign in and comment below for a chance to win Perish from the Earth!

My new historical mystery, Perish from the Earth, is being published by Crooked Lane Books in July. Perish is the second book in my Lincoln & Speed Mystery series, which features the young Abraham Lincoln and his real-life best friend Joshua Speed as a kind of Holmes and Watson on the American frontier. The series is set in the late 1830s when Lincoln (not yet married to Mary Todd) and Speed shared a room—and, indeed, a bed—in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln was a newly admitted member of the bar, while Speed ran a general store.

[Read more from Jonathan F. Putnam!]

You might recall that the former archdeacon in Grantchester left under a cloud of “embarrassment” last season. That’s the politest way to describe what occurred. Suffice it to say no one misses him, and his departure means that, this season, Sidney Chambers (James Norton) has a new boss. 

Gabriel Atubo (Gary Beadle, whom you might recognize from EastEnders, The Interceptor, or possibly even Absolutely Fabulous) is the new archdeacon in town. It’s hard to know what’s on his agenda, but it’s a safe bet that he’ll present a new set of problems for Sidney. To start, he pointedly “hopes” he can count on Sidney to lead by example. That’s tough for Sidney when there’s jazz, whiskey, swing dancing, Amanda (Morven Christie), and all the temptations of secular life that make it inconvenient to be a vicar.

Even more discouraging, Atubo seems ready to make life uncomfortable for gentle, good-hearted curate Leonard Finch (Al Weaver), and that would be intolerable. As the list of characters behaving badly grows with each episode, Leonard remains the beacon of decency in Grantchester. What he needs is a shot of self-confidence, not a judgmental superior watching his every move. (Back off, Gabriel.)

Regarding “The Situation” that caused such consternation in the previous episode: she’s now a cuddly, baby girl named Grace, Amanda’s child with her estranged husband. And though Sidney and Amanda are edging toward playing Happy Families, circumstances make a full-fledged relationship impossible. 

“You can’t be a vicar and be with her,” says Mrs. Maguire (Tessa Peake-Jones). “You can’t marry a divorced woman and that’s the truth of it.”

[The truth hurts…]

July is a month for laughs but hardly for crime and mystery. With several new standup specials in the works, death and deception take a backseat this month. However, Netflix is bringing us an exclusive early release of Rogue One, so things aren't all bad!

See what other crime/mystery/thriller entertainment is coming to (and leaving) Netflix in July! 

[See the full list below...]

These are some of the more interesting, weird, and crazy true crime related stories from the past week (06/17/17 - 06/24/17):

• Woman uses reduced store label to self-scan 117 items


• Mother attempts to give 2-year-old son away in restaurant parking lot


• Man facing charges after taking lion for pickup truck ride


• Man sets underpants on fire, prompts Walgreens evacuation


• Factory workers charged with stealing $300K of avocados


• No 1. problem at Arkansas courthouse: People urinating in the elevator


• Man who robbed bank to get away from wife sentenced to home confinement


• Police discover loads of stolen pink lingerie, loungewear in man’s vehicle

What do you do when you can open “hyper-space shunt” into a “pocket universe” to store things? Keep some vodka ice cold for any occasion!

Who needs to shake a martini anyway? Be cooler than Bond with think this week's Pick Your Poison—where we create a cocktail inspired by a recently published mystery, thriller, or crime novel—the “Pocket Kangaroo” cocktail, inspired by Curtis C. Chen's unique outer-space thriller Kangaroo Too!

[Check out the recipe below!]

Lowcountry Bonfire by Susan M. Boyer is the 6th book in the Liz Talbot Mystery series (available June 27, 2017).

Southern scribe Susan M. Boyer revisits her USA Today bestselling series with Lowcountry Bonfire—the sixth mystery to feature PI Liz Talbot. Earlier titles have won the author an abundance of accolades (including the coveted Agatha Award and the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense) and nominations along with an enthusiastic readership. This newest delivers on the sass and smarts they’ve come to expect.

“Let it burn.” With these prophetic words, Tammy Sue Lyerly lights a match and sets fire to her cheating husband’s 1969 Mustang convertible, which she’s loaded up with his clothing, in the middle of their driveway. It’s the kind of spectacle that draws the neighbors’ attention (not to mention the volunteer firemen’s), so there’s a curious crowd on hand when the car’s trunk is popped open, revealing local mechanic Zeke Lyerly’s stiff, awkwardly splayed body inside. It's something a scorned wife would be expected to answer for, except Tammy barely manages to let out a blood-curdling scream before passing out cold.

[Read John Valeri's review of Lowcountry Bonfire...]