Angie Barry Archives - Criminal Element

Book Review: Making the Monster: The Science Behind Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Kathryn Harkup

By Angie Barry

November 15, 2019

In Making the Monster, bestselling author and chemist Kathryn Harkup does a deep dive into Mary Shelley’s life and the historical events and scientific theories that influenced her greatest work. For two hundred years, it’s been one of the most evocative, potent names in literature. It instantly conjures up images of sparking electrical instruments, laboratories and…

The Edgar Awards Revisited: Mr. White’s Confession by Robert Clark (Best Novel, 1999)

By Angie Barry

November 15, 2019

Some things just never go out of style. Like nostalgia. And the further we get, the more people like to look back. Folks will always love to romanticize the past; put it up on a pedestal as if it was better or more exciting than the turbulent, messy present. Since the past is an open…

Book Review: Lethal Pursuit by Will Thomas

By Angie Barry

November 8, 2019

The express from Dover was still coming to a stop when Hillary Drummond leaped onto the platform. He staggered a moment, coming close to falling, but righted himself, balanced like a tightrope walker, with a suitcase in one hand and a satchel in the other. Once assured of his footing, he began to sprint along…

The Edgar Awards Revisited: Cimarron Rose by James Lee Burke (Best Novel, 1998)

By Angie Barry

November 8, 2019

But my confidence was cosmetic. Neither I nor anyone I knew in Deaf Smith had any influence over Vernon Smothers. He believed intransigence was a virtue, a laconic and mean-spirited demeanor was strength, reason was a tool the rich used to keep the poor satisfied with their lot, and education amounted to reading books full…

Book Review: Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders by Tessa Arlen

By Angie Barry

November 4, 2019

The earth above us shuddered and the pale lights flickered, plunging us into a dark so absolute that our silently held breath seemed to echo our fear. A heartbeat later and we were revealed to one another again. “Cuppa tea, ducky? Probably need one after all that galloping around.” The woman from number twenty-five…

Book Review: Penny for Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber

By Angie Barry

October 31, 2019

Penny for Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber is the third book in the Verity Kent series based in post-WWI England. In the Fall of 1919, former intelligence agent Verity Kent is dismayed to see her friend Ada openly clashing with her lordly husband, Rockham, at a dinner party. Dismay quickly turns to shock when…

See No Evil, Hear No Evil: The Six Senses of Horror

By Angie Barry

Film is a medium of two senses: sight and sound. We can’t touch the people or objects depicted, we can’t smell or taste them. But horror? Horror involves all the senses.

Read This, Watch That: Horror Double Features

By Angie Barry

Ever read a book and think, “Wow, I wish there was a movie of this”?

Book Review: Strangers at the Gate by Catriona McPherson

By Angie Barry

October 23, 2019

Strangers at the Gate by Catriona McPherson is a twisty, fascinating mystery that asks the question: Who do you turn to when everyone’s a stranger and you’ve stopped believing your own eyes? Finn and Paddy Lamb know they’ve hit the jackpot when they each—he a lawyer, she a deacon—get plumb job offers in the prosperous Scottish village…

Book Review: A Cruel Deception by Charles Todd

By Angie Barry

October 22, 2019

A Cruel Deception by Charles Todd is the 11th Bess Crawford Mystery, where nurse Bess Crawford attempts to save a troubled former soldier from a mysterious killer in the aftermath of World War I. The First World War has been over for months, but there’s still plenty of suffering to ease—and the Paris peace talks…