A man sails to Ranaig, an obscure, fictional Scottish island. He’s on a mission to kill. He’d been working out how to kill Wallace Lockhart for months, evolving and discarding plans one after the other till his researches had eventually led him to this. It matched his existing skills, it embraced elements of poetic justice,…
In the latest from Val McDermid’s bestselling thriller series, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan reunite after a mysterious skeleton turns up on the grounds of an old orphanage. ‘The cases that always took the most out of me were the ones that awoke echoes from my own past. Sometimes I learned as much about myself from…
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…
Oh no! The Discovery Channel’s talking Joe Kenda bobblehead is out of stock and you still haven’t bought gifts for your favorite crime buff. Fortunately for you, there’s this thing called “the Internet,” and if it existed for no reason other than facilitate last-minute shopping and distributing cute kitten videos, that would be reason enough.
The Mystery Readers International has announced their nominees for the 2016 Macavity Awards—an annual award for excellence in mysteries, named for the “mystery cat” of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. *Follow the linked titles to excerpts or reviews on CrimeHQ!
Bouchercon, the Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention, is an annual convention held to honor the best in mystery and crime fiction (there is a “Best Critical or Nonfiction Book” section, as well). Named after writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher, this convention gives out the Anthony Awards for outstanding work in 8 different categories,…
Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid is a sprawling history of forensic science that utilizes first-hand accounts and interviews from experts in the field, and is the perfect reference guide for anyone interested in forensics. Forensics is nominated for the 2016 Edgar Award for Best Fact…
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 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…
The Quais Du Polar is the largest crime fiction festival in France, and that’s saying a lot, because the French love crime fiction. Sure, mysteries (and to a lesser extent, noir) are big in the U.S., but crime fiction in France is a cultural phenomenon reaching back decades. The French, god love them, are obsessed…
