As a reader, I have eclectic tastes. I tend to avoid bestseller lists, which is why my shelves are filled mainly with novels from the early-nineteenth to late-twentieth centuries. Putting aside a few staple classics, such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, this list comprises 10 books that rank among…
The supernatural thriller, to me, has always been a small sliver of a genre, one that takes a careful hand. Some books tip into straight horror, while others bury their scary happenings in innuendo and the feeling that something bad—really bad—is going to happen. Some read like mysteries, while others are psychological portraits of haunted…
When it comes to a good mystery, the setting is everything. True, people can be murdered anywhere and, yes, most crimes probably get solved in the forensics lab, but that’s not the stuff that makes the spine tingle and the flesh creep. When I’m settling down for a truly terrorizing tale of intrigue, I tend…
As the days get shorter and an autumn chill finally rolls in, nothing quite hits the spot like some ghostly, gothic fiction. October is a time for witches, spooks, and all things macabre. If you're like me, you line up a full 31 days worth of horror films, stock the bedside table with spooky novels,…
Great news! They’ve confirmed a Season 2 of Stranger Things. I loved the first season of the Netflix original series. Only eight episodes long, but it never feels rushed. The Duffer Brothers did a great job giving us characters we care about and a monster that truly terrified me. It's set in the early '80s…
The Mystery Writers of America have announced the 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 28th, 2016 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. As always, it's a fantastic list of great work that deserves to…
I’ve got Shirley Jackson on the brain. I just recently finished reading Let Me Tell You, a forthcoming collection of short stories and essays by her, most of them previously unpublished. If you like Jackson’s writing and/or are intrigued by her personality, you’ll want to get a hold of that anthology when it’s released this…
The New Black: A Neo-Noir Anthology, edited by Richard Thomas, is a collection of twenty dark and twisted tales from assorted genres: horror, crime, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and the grotesque (available May 13, 2014). I tend to not get bogged down with defining genres. I’m sure some would question whether all or even…
Rarely does anyone think of The New Yorker magazine as a place to go to get a quick fix of horror fiction. And yet in 1948 that well-respected magazine published just such a story, which caused great controversy and stirred up a tremendous amount of hate mail. It also was the cause of numerous readers…
Recently, I’ve noticed a genre label being used, and I don’t understand what it means. I’m hoping CE readers can help define this slippery term: “literary thriller.” It’s in use by authors, agents, marketing departments, reviewers, bloggers, tweeters and a host of others. However, its usage is also inconsistent, confusing, and mystifying. I think it’s…
