Some books really do change your life. For me, it was Dr. No, not the first James Bond novel but the first to be turned into a movie in 1962. I read it when I was ten years old, stuck in an all-boys boarding school in North London, the sort of grim institution that the…
If you’re like me, reading good crime fiction conjures up all sorts of images. The sound and feel of a bullet spiraling out of the gun and hitting its mark can make you wince. The sight of the detective discovering the one clue that solves the case draws you right into the “ah ha” moment.…
The Barry Awards, which began in 1997, are presented at the annual Bouchercon World Mystery Convention. Voted on by the readers of Deadly Pleasures, the award is named in honor of Barry Gardner, a well-known fan reviewer and American critic. This year's awards will be held on September 6, 2018, at the St. Petersburg Bouchercon…
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! This week, a new John Grisham highlights a HUGE week for publishing! See what else we're reading:
The Mystery Writers of America have announced the Edgar Award nominees and special winners. The Edgars banquet—an annual black-tie gala celebrating crime fiction, non-fiction, and television writing—will be held on Thursday, April 28th, 2016 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. As always, it's a fantastic list of great work that deserves to…
From Shakespeare to Sherlock, Hercule Poirot to James Bond, London has always had a rich literary history. And now you can sit on it! Thanks to The National Literacy Trust, along with its public art promotor Wild in Art, 50 benches have been commissioned that will be painted to look like open books portraying scenes…
In this series of Foyle’s War we’ve been exploring the idea of trust in the postwar world. Who are friends? Who are enemies? Who do you rely on to keep you safe and secure? The answers are neither easy nor obvious. “Sunflower,” the final episode of Foyle’s War, makes that painfully clear. For if you…
Inside a lovely home, a phone rings. A woman answers it. She listens for a moment, says two words into the receiver, places it back in the cradle, picks up a briefcase and a passport and slips out the door before her husband looks up from his afternoon paper to notice she’s gone. What begins…
The basic premise of Foyle’s War—a police inspector left to enforce the law on the homefront during World War II—came to the end of its natural life when the series timeline reached the end of World War II. But Foyle, and his creator Anthony Horowitz, weren’t quite ready to give up. So, happily, Foyle’s War…
Martha and Clive are preparing for their “silk” interviews, so we can rest assured that this episode will toss plenty of roadblocks in their way. Not to mention the roadblocks we know Martha will create for herself. ’Cause she wouldn’t be Martha if she didn’t make everything much more difficult than it needs to be.…
