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Megan Abbott

Classroom Crime Novels

By Frederick Weisel

February 15, 2022

Mysteries and thrillers have long been set in institutions of learning. Many of these novels play out in universities and elite boarding schools in New England and in the British countryside. With their remote campuses and secret student societies, novels like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Tana French’s The Secret Place make wonderful gothic…

Book Review: The Turnout by Megan Abbott

By Doreen Sheridan

August 4, 2021

The Turnout by Megan Abbott is a tale both alarming and irresistible, a sharp and strange dissection of family ties and sexuality, femininity and power, that displays the underbelly of the dancing world. Dara and Marie Durant are sisters but, more importantly, they’re dancers. Like their mother, they both showed early talent as ballerinas and…

Four Authors Who Blurred the True Crime Line

By Jess Lourey

January 3, 2020

I picked up The Stranger Beside Me at a garage sale in the spring of 1983. Thirteen years old, I was deep in my V. C. Andrews phase and searching for books that awoke that same forbidden thrill.

Self-Interrogation: Author Tom Bennitt on Coal Mining, Must-Read Thrillers, and Burning Under

By Tom Bennitt

October 15, 2018

My first novel, a thriller called Burning Under, is coming out this fall. Set in southwest Pennsylvania – including the coal region, the Rustbelt, and Pittsburgh – it revolves around a deadly coal mine explosion owned by a corrupt mining company. Between college and my MFA, I spent seven years practicing corporate law in the…

5 New Books to Read this Week: July 17, 2018

By Crime HQ

July 18, 2018

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, David Rosenfelt’s 17th Andy Carpenter novel combines with a terrifying debut from Zoje Stage to highlight a killer week of books! See…

Announcing the 2017 Macavity Awards Nominees

By Crime HQ

July 5, 2017

The Mystery Readers International have announced the nominees for the 2017 Macavity Awards. The Macavity Award—named for the “mystery cat” of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats—is an annual award celebrating the year's best in the mystery genre. 

My Top 5 Books About Disappearance

By Chris Ewan

February 8, 2017

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…

Top Female Crime and Mystery Authors

By Marianne Delacourt

January 26, 2017

Crime and mystery fiction’s diversity attracts a broad readership. For instance, I prefer the soft stuff and am attracted to the puzzle rather than grizzly details, while many of my friends enjoy peeled skin and body parts. Knowing that, it seems immensely impertinent for me to try to compile a “best of” list on my…

5 New Books to Read this Week: December 6, 2016

By Crime HQ

December 7, 2016

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 some great cozies, a couple of kickass thrillers, and a ridiculous anthology edited by Lawrence Block and…

Review: In Sunlight or In Shadow, Edited by Lawrence Block

By Thomas Pluck

December 2, 2016

In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper, edited by Lawrence Block, is a newly-commissioned anthology of seventeen superbly-crafted stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper (Available December 6, 2016). Edward Hopper is probably the first—and possibly the only—famous visual artist you’ll think of when discussing noir. His Nighthawks encapsulates…

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