Mind-altering substances needn’t always come in the form of a pill, plant, capsule, tab, or tincture. Sometimes they come in the form of a crime novel. We’ve all read great mysteries, thrillers, and noir that created a prodigious shift in our perspective, mindset, or mood—even if only temporarily. Getting high on crime fiction is not…
As a Boston native and crime fiction lover since childhood, I always felt like I got on the Dennis Lehane train early, with his superb first entry in the Kenzie and Gennaro PI series, A Drink Before the War. Then he started producing other powerhouse novels like Shutter Island and Mystic River—books that brought alive…
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, we get a new novel from acclaimed author Dennis Lehane, as well as the 11th Harry Hole thriller from…
I’m a fan of all kinds of crime novels, but a lot of my favorites tend to be linked by one thing: unexplained disappearances. The idea of somebody vanishing fascinates me because it throws up so many intriguing questions: How and why do people disappear? Where do they go? How do they stay lost? What…
Batman takes a step back from fighting crime to participate in it, as Ben Affleck directs and stars in the dramatic crime thriller Live by Night. Adapted from the award-winning bestseller by Dennis Lehane, Live by Night is set in the Roaring ‘20s, around the Prohibition era. Affleck plays the ambitious Joe Coughlin, the son…
Lily Gardner, author of Betting Blind—the 2nd Lennox Cooper Mystery—was kind enough to answer some of Criminal Element's questions about her beginnings as a writer, her inspirations, and living in Portland, OR.
The detective novel has been around for a long, long, long time. Most of us have read and enjoyed the canon, but now we want something different: a realistic storyline and detectives that feel like real people. Here are a few examples of what works for me.
After you’ve read Barry Lancet and Anthony Franze’s piece about some of the masters of opening lines, comment below with your own favorite opening from a thriller, mystery, or crime fiction novel and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of Barry’s new novel, PACIFIC BURN, from his acclaimed Jim Brodie series,…
Road trip – had to be a winner, right? As a kid growing up in the narrow streets of northern England, I knew America as surely as I knew the grey concrete of my own back yard. For years, I had a recurring dream; I was driving along a winding coast road – steep rocky…
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 Wednesday, April 29th, 2015 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. As always, it's a fantastic list of great work that deserves to…
