On this, the 171st anniversary of his death, Edgar Allan Poe is more popular than ever and more misunderstood. Mystery writer S. S. Van Dine describes the detective story as a contest, in which the author seeks to “outwit the reader” by presenting a puzzle that the reader is unable to solve, despite being given…
Today, January 19th, is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday. To celebrate his would-be 210th name day, we’re taking a look back at “The Purloined Letter,” C. Auguste Dupin, and the villain who’s been right in front of our eyes this whole time. It’s what he would have wanted. You don’t hear too many people using the…
Read this exclusive guest post from Michael Cannell, author of Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling, and make sure to sign in and comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of the book! New York convulsed with anxiety in 1956 as police searched in vain for…
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) remains a giant within the horror set with renowned classics such as The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Pit and the Pendulum. He’s also acknowledged as the architect of the contemporary detective genre with his French investigator, C. Auguste Dupin, who first appeared in 1841’s “The Murders in the Rue…
The classics are the classics! This bundle of seven criminal works, including an audiobook and a comic no less, has an impeccable pedigree! Click here to enter for a chance to win! This is NOT a Comments Sweepstakes. You must click the link above to enter. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE DOES NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCE…
Crime fiction is cheerfully described as an addiction by many of its fans, including such diverse personalities as Sigmund Freud and Woodrow Wilson. Just as neurochemical addicts have an endless menu of obsessions to gorge on (alcohol, tobacco, narcotics, gambling, chocolate, sex…), crimefic addicts have an ever-growing and ever-mutating variety of subgenres to sample. But…
All too often, people assert that so-called “genre” fiction (a class that includes mystery fiction) is separate from “literary” fiction. I think not. Why should literary fiction and mystery fiction be mutually exclusive categories? Who makes such distinctions? If literary fiction is driven by plot, complex characters, serious tone, and elegant narration, then the subsequent…
Today is Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday (1809-1849) and I think it would be fun to celebrate it with a reading of one of his little known detective stories, “Thou Art the Man” (1844). Much praise has been heaped on Poe’s other detective stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and…
[No, you did not miss the US premiere of the BBC’s Sherlock Season 2. Some of us watched the UK feed and were anxious to discuss it. Believe me, we’ll be doing so again on May 6, when it premieres on this side of the pond! But if you don’t mind a few spoilers, dive…
I recently bought a Kindle Fire. (Don’t ask, I have no idea how it works; haven’t yet opened the box.) The first thing I did when I got home was to log onto the Kindle website and spend nearly an hour browsing the short mystery fiction collection. Giddy with the prospect of so many short…
