When searching for inspiration for Beloved Poison, the dark and extraordinary history of 19th-century medicine offered an evocative, alarming, and exciting world. The setting for my novel was an infirmary. Ramshackle and decaying, I used Old St. Thomas’s Hospital in London as my template. Instead of being places of hope and cure, in the mid-19th century,…
We're proud to present “Night Watchman” by A.M. Thurmond, the latest crime fiction selection for The M.O.'s “Lesson Learned” issue! This submission received the most votes from our shortlisted previews. Read the whole thing here! “Dormez bien, Monsieur Cheshire,” Judy said, winking. Sweet dreams. It's our little joke, Judy going off shift, me coming on. Judy's got a…
Here we are, fannibalizing together a last time, much like Hannibal and Will in the blood-soaked (probably) series finale “The Wrath of the Lamb.” There was some returning to the inspiration of the source material for this episode, and oddly enough, because of times when the show departed, those twists didn't work as well as…
Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) envisions killing his wife and so consults the second-deadliest therapist in Baltimore. Supposing this is only his dragonic killer-empathy in overdrive, nonetheless, I didn't want to believe he'd seek the advice of Dr. Bedelia DuMaurier (Gillian Anderson) in her dispensary of smug. The two spar over who is hurt more, who…
In Hannibal's 3.10, it's getting late, but Tooth Fairies are night owls, and Francis Dolarhyde (Richard Armitage) takes his pedo-van to Maryland on a pilgrimage to Hannibal's old, plastic-shrouded office. Within, he jumps wires in the telephony before unwrapping and starting up Hannibal's old computer, perhaps surprisingly, not claimed by law enforcement as a part…
When Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) visits Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), we learn even the perennially-scruffy nature boy wears aftershave. The moon-phased Tooth Fairy is on a killing deadline, and the Baltimore State Psychiatric Hospital's apex killer-in-residence must be consulted. For his part, Hannibal appreciates a break from the professional “second-raters” and “pencil-lickers.” Wicked. (I…
Stray dogs and more Englishmen! Once Hannibal was captive, I felt safe vacating, so “The Great Red Dragon” is a late write-up. This episode had a dash of everything I love and may mourn if alternate media saviors don't intervene to #SaveHannibal. The Baltimore State Hospital has inherited Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), and Dr.…
Hannibal's “Digestivo” finishes characters with a burp, despite NBC moving our dinner reservation. Shifted to Saturday night, without preamble, this week's episode had lots of action for fannibals who don't care about the show's cancellation, not while there's still plenty to see in this season. (Of course, the more vigorous and plentiful the viewer affection, the…
In “Apertivo,” a cadre of fractious, murderous conspirators maneuvers to converge upon Caesar (okay, Hannibal). In Republican Rome, a lamb was sacrificed to Jupiter on the ides of each month, and it was by this date in March in 44 B.C.E. that a seer is reported to have told a scoffing Julius Caesar that harm…
Trauma by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer is a medical thriller about a neurosurgical resident, who, after an awful mistake, retreats home, where her brother's PTSD offers an irresistible medical challenge (available May 12, 2015). Who isn’t captured by the horror of a single error yanking a life off the rails, and not one's own,…
