Regardless of characters, setting, or storyline, a single word always comes to mind when I read a Michael Connelly novel: authenticity. The details of how Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller, and Renée Ballard investigate crimes, identify suspects, and interact with their colleagues always withstand scrutiny. In a recent review of Connelly’s newest book The Night Fire,…
Once I read a review in the New York Times about a book called Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, a book that turned out to be one of my favorite books ever. And the reviewer, I don’t remember who, was clearly apprehensive about writing it. The reviewer said something like: I’m worried, writing this, that…
What’s the worst thing that could possibly happen to a reporter? Professionally at least, that’s easy to answer. The worst thing is to make a mistake. And that is what Mary Willis Walker has captured so beautifully in The Red Scream: the anguish of a reporter—possibly—having made a devastating and career-ending error. At first, this…
I wish I could have eavesdropped on the Edgar committee for 1987. “Are you kidding me?” someone might have said. “A Dark-Adapted Eye? Barbara Vine, whoever that is, tells who did it on page one! What kind of a mystery is that?” Someone else may have chimed in. “Listen, Barbara Vine is a pseudonym for Ruth…
Why was writing The Murder List like doing math? Because it’s all about understanding the properties of a triangle. One of the basic shapes of in geometry, right? And one of the basic shapes of conflict. Three points on a triangle. Or three points of view. And in a twisty triangle thriller, it all depends…
The Murder List is a new standalone suspense novel in the tradition of Lisa Scottoline and B. A. Paris from award-winning author and reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan. Rachel North is not your average law student. For starters, she is far older than most of her classmates and married to a prestigious Boston defense attorney. She has…
When I was a little girl, there was one thing we were not allowed to do in our house: talk during The Perry Mason Show. Seriously. When Perry Mason was on TV, my sister and I were required, if we wanted to watch it and of course we did, not to say a word. During…
2018 was a memorable year for a variety of reasons, but here at CrimeHQ, we’re concentrating on the things that thrilled us, scared us, mystified us, and kept us up all hours of the night. Without further ado, may we present our favorite books of 2018. And here’s to you, 2019. May you bring us…
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, Hank Phillippi Ryan’s first standalone novel combines with Sophie Hannah’s third mystery in Agatha Christie’s legendary Hercule Poirot series…
Journalists writing in spiral notebooks and making phone calls and knocking on doors—that simply doesn’t have the slam-bang movie-trailer appeal of explosions or car chases or monsters from the deep. But hey. Forget about boy gets girl or girl gets boy. I’m hooked on girl (or boy) gets story. A midnight secret source. A hunch.…
