Join Louise Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Sister, as she shares writing tips and discusses 4 necessary elements all suspense novels should have. Her new novel, The Date, is available now! Currently, I’m writing my 6th psychological thriller and although my suspense novels all have completely different plots there are four main things…
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! The first in a new series from Ellie Alexander combines with M. C. Beaton's 28th Agatha Raisin Mystery and Dan Brown's…
In Inferno, we once again have Dr. Robert Langdon using obscure knowledge about literature, history, and art to solve puzzles. And with this go around, we focus on the works of Dante Alighieri, who wrote the Divine Comedy—the highlight of which is Inferno. Langdon is correct about the modern conceptualization of Hell. Dante literally wrote…
Angels are quickly and visibly present in Angels & Demons through the use of statues, but the demons are much more subtle. The first clue is not in the film, but is present on the cover of the book. The font used is an ambigram—like that of Illuminati in the film—so that the title reads…
With the final film in the Robert Langdon trilogy, Inferno, hitting theaters recently, we thought it'd be apt to explore the history and mythology of a series so steeped in it. Over the course of the next 3 days, we'll explore each story—The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno—and the mythology that help shape…
The mood of ThrillerFest is palpably different from CraftFest. There’s more excitement and the personalities come out. Such as Brad Parks, author of the Carter Ross mysteries, recognizable as the tall thin man in the gray suit, and Karin Slaughter, dressed all in black with a short blonde bob, but both are unforgettable with their…
The world changed seismically for thrillers on 9/11. All of a sudden, the dastardly plots and cunning villains that had been a staple of the genre dating back to Ian Fleming had been outdone by reality. Although both Thomas Harris and Tom Clancy had written books foreshadowing that fateful day, nothing could prepare for us…
According to a new Harris poll, The Bible has retained its place atop the list of America's favorite books. In fact, the second-ranked book, Gone with the Wind kept its spot for the second consecutive poll as well. The last poll was tallied in 2008. Newcomers include: Moby Dick, Little Women, The Grapes of Wrath,…
I was looking at my collection (yes, I do this a lot) and I was wondering. How can I have on the same shelf genres such as hard-boiled, gritty, literary, noir, literary noir, police procedurals, timeless classics like Catch-22, In Cold Blood, Naked Lunch, but also Dan Brown, some pulp PI novels and a collection…
A crime is a crime, isn’t it? Well, jaywalking is a crime. (Though when was the last time you even heard that term used, much less heard of someone being cited for it.) So is murder. So is conspiracy to commit treason. So all crimes are not created equal, and such is the glorious nature…
