American Static by Tom Pitts is a fast-paced crime thriller set against the backdrop of Northern California's wine country, Oakland's mean streets, and San Francisco's peaks and alleys, written by a man who knows the underbelly of the city like no one else. In classic noir stories—fiction or film—it only takes one bad decision or…
Proving Ground by Peter Blauner is a sweeping crime novel, an intricate story about the quest for redemption, and a vibrant portrait of contemporary New York City. Proving Ground is Peter Blauner’s first novel in eleven years. Since his last, Slipping Into Darkness, he has been writing for television shows such as Law & Order: SVU…
Daphne du Maurier published her story “The Birds” in her 1952 collection called The Apple Tree. Several years later, Alfred Hitchcock bought the rights to the story, and in 1963 he released it as a film with a script by novelist Evan Hunter. Hitchcock had already filmed two du Maurier works, Jamaica Inn in 1939…
In January, 1993, right after airing Super Bowl XXVII, NBC premiered the series Homicide: Life on the Street. I remember watching the first episode then because I had seen the promo spots for it during the game, and it appeared to be an intriguing enough police show to give it a try. It’s amusing now…
Christmas in the Lone Star State by Jason Manning is a Western set in the rough-and-tumble Texas frontier. Read Scott Adlerberg's review of Christmas in the Lone Star State by Jason Manning, and make sure you're signed in and comment below for a chance to win a copy of this wintry Western! Set in Texas…
Gunshine State by Andrew Nette is a heist thriller set in Queensland, Melbourne and Thailand. Think Richard Stark’s Parker, Garry Disher’s Wyatt, and Wallace Stroby's Crissa Stone. Add a touch of Surfers Paradise sleaze and a very dangerous stopover in Asia. I have a lot of respect for writers who do heist thrillers. For one thing,…
An attractive young woman smiles at a man through her apartment window. Once he’s in her apartment, she embraces him. “How are you going to kill me this time?” she asks. “I’m going to slash your throat,” he answers. Soon afterwards, we see them in bed, the man out of frame, the woman atop the…
Reading Graveyard Love, I'm reminded of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard. William Holden as Joe Gillis typing away for the vanity and delusions of a demented old hag named Norma Desmond, played by Gloria Swanson. Remember how his work environment decayed into an endless abyss of her crumbling memories, broken-down expectations, and finally led to good…
In the late 1960s, Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, the most popular science fiction writers in Russia, decided to write a mystery novel. The Dead Mountaineer's Inn was published in 1970, and its creation may have been motivated in part by the weariness they felt struggling with the Soviet authorities. Once writers of optimistic science fiction that…
As the year comes to a close and all the time spent with the weird uncle during family gatherings reminds us to get our lives together, like two old work buddies who awkwardly run into each other in public and make empty promises to keep in touch, we keep up the tradition of making New…
