There have been black writers writing black detectives since the beginning of the 20th century. There were black Holmes’ and black Marlowes and black Marples, policemen, amateur sleuths, and private eyes, coexisting with their “mainstream” counterparts almost since the beginning of modern crime fiction, but they were ignored, unseen, unpublished. These black writers, these pioneers,…
Here’s a spectacular setup for a historical crime novel: There’s this emperor, see. We’ll call him C. But C is only one of four emperors because a while back the empire got divided into four parts. Emperors being what they are, all four are madly ambitious and jockeying for control, aiming to be the last…
“Reading,” said the writer and aphorist Mason Cooley, “gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” The world might be starting to open up after the pandemic, but with lots of us staying home this summer what better way to get those travel vibes than a good book? Before I…
One of my favorite elements of storytelling is momentum. Reading a well-written thriller is a bit like standing in a river current—whether it’s a violent tug or a steady pull, the narrative is always moving inexorably forward and taking you along with it. With escalating stakes, white-knuckle action, or a dazzling concept explored to its…
If you can’t decide on what to read, the Minotaur Fall Sampler is the perfect way to choose. Whether you want to start a series or read a standalone novel, the Sampler has you covered. The Sampler contains the beginnings of four different mysteries, so don’t be surprised if you end up wanting to finish…
I come from the rainy and murderous Pacific Northwest near Seattle, a place where we know a thing or two about serial killers here because we’ve had some of the most notorious call our neck of the woods home. I can look across the water from my home and see the city where Ted first…
In the old days before streaming video, the only place you could reliably see a Chinese martial arts movie was on your local TV station’s Saturday afternoon broadcast of Kung Fu Theater, or some similarly named program. Chances are it would a double feature—Shaolin Executioners followed by Dirty Ho, perhaps—featuring guys in bad wigs and…
A Note from Alex Finlay I was thrilled and humbled by the reception to Every Last Fear—from prominent newspaper reviewers, to librarians, to independent booksellers, to readers—and I’m incredibly grateful. I’m also optimistic that The Night Shift will be a worthy follow-up, and am particularly excited about the return of Special Agent Sarah Keller. —Alex…
What is noir? It’s legendarily hard to define but you know it when you see it: Dark streets slick with rain. Seedy hotel rooms lit by a reddish neon glare. A wisp of smoke curling up from a cigarette in a shadowy corner. Desperate men and women with obscure motives and shifting loyalties. In Asia,…
Portland–and Oregon in general–has had its share of crime: We’re the home of D. B. Cooper, the I-5 serial killer, Diane Downs, Tonya Harding, and Westley Allen Dodd. The Green River Killer and Ted Bundy committed some of their crimes here, and a cult in eastern Oregon once tried to poison a river that fed…
