What is it about someone showing up at your house carrying a suitcase? Do you hear the Jaws music? There’s nothing quite as illustrative of what “point of view” means as when you view your home through the eyes of a guest. Why did you not see the spider webs on the chandelier? Why did…
It’s an understatement to say we love thrillers. It’s our favorite genre and has been for the longest time, more specifically ever since we became obsessed with Eric Jerome Dickey’s slick, sensual, fast-paced sagas back in the early aughts. Lit fic comes in as a close second because we are partial to long-winded character studies…
They’re in love. They pull off scores. If they make one wrong move, they’re dead. That’s the story of Sam and Rachel, hustlers and anti-heroes of “A Grifter’s Song,” a long-running series of novellas by some of crime fiction’s most notable authors. Each new entry ratchets up the tension: can the pair carry off yet…
The Fall Girl by Marcia Clark “Clark utilizes a dual narrative technique…It’s a clever, well-executed move that emphasizes the psychological aspects of the story over the procedural elements, which largely predominated earlier works…The Fall Girl shows Marcia Clark at her absolute best.” Child Zero by Chris Holm “Chris Holm’s Child Zero is one of the…
Whenever I’m at a book event or a writers’ convention, I get a questioning glance when I say that I write a Victorian mysteries series. “Why Victorian?” I’m often asked. The answer is simple. To me, the Victorian Era was the golden age. There is an image of men in formal suits with walking sticks…
How could I meet some African cops? I could go to Africa and get arrested, but that seemed less than ideal. I was writing a novel, a thriller called Wealth Management, and I wanted the characters to include a detective from Africa (he would travel to Switzerland to investigate a financial crime with a connection…
After a delay of three years, I finally got a chance to attend a Kensington CozyClub Mini-Con! In 2019, the pandemic put paid to Kensington Publishing’s usual slate of CozyClub mini-conventions, aimed at lovers of cozy mysteries and held regionally on a regular basis. Now that it’s 2022 however, things have gotten safe enough to…
Most mystery fans are aware that Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express was inspired by the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping. In the classic mystery, Poirot investigates the murder of Samuel Ratchett. Years ago, Ratchett was behind the kidnapping of “Little Daisy Armstrong,” but he escaped punishment. As Poirot discovers, everyone on the train has a…
Years ago, I had lunch with some friends in a London restaurant. It was in a courtyard near Holborn, a strange cobbled yard with a stranger name: Bleeding Heart Yard. When I got home, I Googled the location and found that, in the seventeenth-century, a woman called Elizabeth Hatton (of Hatton Garden fame) was murdered…
Everyone who’s old enough remembers where they were when Kennedy was killed. The mention of Elvis and Lady Diana Spencer provoke similar recollection. Why is that? Simply because they were famous? Or because they touched the lives of so many? Maybe your favorite Elvis song, played continuously on a loop, woke you from a ten-year…
