From the start, I wanted to make “place” as much a participant in my now 32-volume Joe Gunther series as the humans driving the plots. The books are set in Vermont, so the famously touted beauty and natural drama of that state supplied an easy starting point. But in addition, I wanted to ferret out…
Who’s in control of your life? You? Or someone or something else? It’s a heady question, asked about as long as humans have thought about anything, and it’s at the heart of crime fiction, especially noir. Much of crime fiction is predicated on inevitability (chances are the detective is going to solve the case, order…
The parents at the center of my novel The Neighbor’s Secret—otherwise law-abiding citizens—justify some very bad behavior in the name of protecting their children. Over-bearing, neglectful, competitive: there are endless ways family members, even well-intentioned ones, can burden each other with toxic cultures and inherited traumas. This is excellent news for crime readers, if not for…
If you can’t decide on what to read, the Minotaur Winter 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 six different mysteries, so don’t be surprised if you end up wanting to finish…
Summer camp, boarding school, college—interesting places for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that they have as one of their founding principles the idea that you will, absolutely, leave them. In fact, leaving them is one of the main points. You will come to them as a stranger, bright, shiny, and anxious.…
A Note from Sena Desai Gopal The 86th Village takes place in a southern Indian village doomed to drown in the backwaters of a dam. The story and characters are fictitious, but the setting is autobiographical. My ancestral village, Yadahalli, will drown in one of India’s biggest dams—The Upper Krishna Project—across the 900-mile long…
It’s fair to say we’ve both read or watched the best thrillers during the last thirty years. In our opinion, obviously! And there’s one thing we always agree on: what scares us the most is serial killer with clear motives and a detailed plan. A relentless murderer who won’t stop until they’ve realized their grand…
In December 1957 and January 1958, nineteen-year-old Charlie Starkweather embarked on a killing spree through Nebraska and Wyoming. Most of the murders took place in just over a week, an eight-day rampage of shootings and stabbings that confounded authorities and terrorized the general public. With his even younger girlfriend in tow, Charlie killed eleven people,…
Author Peter Blauner discusses Christ in Concrete, an often-overlooked novel about the life of Italian immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1920s and a twelve-year-old boy who must support his family after his father’s untimely death. Most crime novels try to hook you on the first page, or even the first…
My name is Tori—not the diminutive of Victoria, but an adaptation from the Viking god of thunder. If I were a character in your story, the origin of my name might reflect my personality and guide my mission. Whether you created me as Thor’s Earthly descendent with yet-to-be-discovered magical powers or a feminist hero battling…
