Perhaps you know the sensation: that an inanimate object has somehow found you. That perfect-fitting, too soft-to-be-true t-shirt that was shoved on a sale rack with your favorite line from Star Wars or The Godfather or whatever you want emblazoned on the front. Or the gnome statue at a garage sale that looks remarkably like…
Raymond Chandler. The name carries so much weight in the mystery genre, it’s hard to believe anyone who says they’ve never read any of his works. But I hadn’t. Like much of popular culture, after a certain time, the details are everywhere—reviewed, rebooted, interpreted, and imitated. I knew Philip Marlowe through and through without having…
Five years ago, through some good luck, I began working for Criminal Element. It wasn’t the destination I had in mind when I started my job search, but after an interview for a role where I wasn’t quite a perfect fit, my interviewer said he might have a different opportunity for me. Enter Criminal Element.…
The Mystery Writers of America have announced the 2018 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 Thursday, April 26th, 2018, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. As always, it's a fantastic list of great work that deserves…
The annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards dinner, hosted by the Mystery Writers of America, was a night of milestones—starting with the Edgars themselves, which turned 70 this year. That’s 70 years of celebrating the best of mystery fiction, crime fiction, suspense, thrillers, and true crime—all the stuff we love to read and watch, all the…
The Edgar Award, in honor of the great Edgar Allan Poe, is presented by The Mystery Writers of America to the best in mystery fiction & nonfiction that was produced during the previous year. Here at Criminal Element, we'll be covering the Edgars during the entire month of April, leading up to the awards ceremony…
The Man on the Washing Machine by Susan Cox is a debut crime novel about Theophania Bogart, a former Englishwoman who flees to San Francisco and gets caught up in a smuggling operation and a series of murders, who has to race to find the killer before they find her (Available December 15, 2015). When…
No Sex in the Reading Room – Sometimes, there are no words available to describe the passion and intimacy of a sexual encounter. And in literature, some authors might want to remember that before committing adultery to the page. Thankfully for us, some authors flounder about like a dying fish when it comes to the…
We're thrilled to have “An Unexpected Guest” to share in audio format! This short story is a collision of fan-favorite universes, courtesy of their respective authors, Donna Andrews and John Gilstrap, and in commemoration of Mystery Writers of America's 70th anniversary. If you'd like to read the text version of what happens when one of…
Deadly operative Boxers hunts evil… in Caerphilly?! Blame John Gilstrap and Donna Andrews, but don’t forget Mystery Writers of America, whose 70th anniversary provided the excuse for this dangerously charming mash-up. “Father Dom! What are you still doing here?” Dom D’Angelo looked up from the grant application that had been consuming his day. He…
