CrimeReads

Baltimore, 1979: N Luv Wit a Stripper crimereads.com/baltimore-19...
--an essay about being a 17 year old living in Baltimore, discovering the red light district and falling in love with a stripper. They didn't call it Charm City for nothin'.
@crimereads.bsky.social @thesundaylongread.bsky.social

The Three Lives of William Conrad: More Than Just the ‘Heavy’ Film noir lovers know William Conrad from his hard-edged and menacing roles in vintage black-and-white films. Most people know him from 1970s and 1980s TV cop shows like “Cannon” and “Jake and the …

Here's my latest for @crimereads.bsky.social and it's about William Conrad, veteran film heavy, TV series lead, narrator of loco, wonderful cartoons and, most surprisingly, director of offbeat 1960s thrillers.

crimereads.com/william-conr...

Fergus Craig on Cozies, Humor, and Placing Serial Killers in Unexpected Settings How do you feel about murder? Me? I’m against it. Let me say that right from the start. I think murder is wrong. And if we’re agreed that murder is wrong (I’d like to think we are, though there may…

I wrote a piece for @crimereads.bsky.social about my new book and on what it is that makes crime so cozy... crimereads.com/fergus-craig...

The Pull of Gritty, Authentic Crime Fiction in the Era of AI Slop More than ever before, we crave authenticity. In a world of filters, algorithms, and deepfakes, we seek out honesty and integrity. Fortunately, crime fiction can satisfy that craving. What is real …

"Realness. Crime fiction, in all its many shapes and forms, excels at this."

The Pull of Gritty, Authentic Crime Fiction in the Era of AI Slop

crimereads.com/the-pull-of-...
by Will Dean via @crimereads.bsky.social

The Terminator Is About the Last Moments In a Woman’s Life Before She Becomes a Mother A few weeks ago, I found myself with a burning desire to watch The Terminator. I love The Terminator for many reasons; it’s a perfect movie. It has easily adaptable lore but is itself very self-con…

Olivia Rutigliano on the classic sci-fi film, motherhood, reproductive rights, AI, and the realities of living in a misogynistic society.
crimereads.com/the-terminat...

Golden Age Detectives in Love It’s the puzzle of mystery novels that attracts me the most. The details that make me analyze and think critically and try to make sense of the world. But why not add a whiff of romance? Personal r…

Celebrating the love lives of Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, Roderick Alleyn, Albert Campion, and more. crimereads.com/golden-age-d...

There’s no Valentine’s Day Movie Like Some Like It Hot When I say that you should watch Some Like It Hot (1959) this Valentine’s Day, I don’t just mean you should watch it because it’s a romantic comedy, or even because it’s one…

Love... murder... what more can you ask for (in a bubbly, buddy screwball comedy)? crimereads.com/theres-no-va...

New Series to Watch this Holiday Weekend Featured Image Photo Credit: Prime It’s Friday! And it’s not just ANY Friday… it’s the Friday before a LONG WEEKEND! This is the best kind of Friday, and we are here to help…

For the love of TV: crimereads.com/new-series-t...

Bad Love, Good Sex: The Best Thirst Traps in Crime Fiction Not everyone is spending Valentine’s Day with their significant other, playing into the romantic consumerist fantasy that is modern Valentine’s Day. Many are, instead, just having sex. …

Sexy mysteries: crimereads.com/bad-love-goo...

The trailer for Spider Noir is Here! I don’t really watch a lot of superhero things, but I have seen the two Into the Spider-Verse movies that have come out. My favorite part about them, unsurprisingly, was the inclusion of a Sp…

Spider Noir! crimereads.com/the-trailer-...

What can family curses tell us about inheritance and self-fulfilling prophecy? My family is cursed. At least, that’s what my nonna always used to say. Back in Italy, before she was even born, her grandfather caught a witch on his property one night. Suspecting the crone of ev…

Carmella Lowkis on her family's strange legacy. crimereads.com/what-can-fam...

Johnny Compton on Four Great Supernatural Noirs Apparently I fell in love with the idea of crime stories intersecting with the supernatural at a younger age than I realized. My first attempts to write short stories came in the fifth grade, when …

"When in doubt, put a ghost in it." crimereads.com/supernatural...

New Series to Watch this Holiday Weekend Featured Image Photo Credit: Prime It’s Friday! And it’s not just ANY Friday… it’s the Friday before a LONG WEEKEND! This is the best kind of Friday, and we are here to help…

It's a holiday weekend... and you know what that means! We've got a crimey TV streaming guide for you! crimereads.com/new-series-t...

My First Thriller: John Grisham Who would have thought a turning point in John Grisham’s career would be supporting the losing candidate for speaker of the house in the Mississippi state legislature.  “If my friend had won, I was…

Rick Pullen on how John Grisham got his start!
crimereads.com/john-grisham...

The Bleak, Propulsive Noir of Simenon’s Romans Durs If forced to nominate any positives at all out of the last two years of global pandemic, it is the increased time I’ve had to read. In the first year of Covid I made good on a long-standing desire …

Happy birthday in heaven to Georges Simenon, born on this day in 1903. To mark the occasion, a piece l did a few years ago for @crimereads.bsky.social celebrating the dark, transgressive wonder that is his Roman’s durs.

crimereads.com/simenon-roma...

There Should Be a Murder in Bridgerton Entertainment has, for the last few years, come down with whodunnit fever. Think about how many charming murder mystery shows have appeared: Only Murders in the Building, The Afterparty, Death and …

Hear us out! crimereads.com/there-should...

Jennifer van der Kleut On Finding Inspiration in Reddit’s “Am I The A$$hole” Forum We all use fiction as an escape from the stress and grind of our everyday lives. But what about the times real life is crazier than a song, wackier than any fiction? That can be just as good—as lon…

"[N]othing is scarier than real life." crimereads.com/jennifer-van...

5 Clever and Compelling Heroines in Historical Mystery Series One of the enduring pleasures of historical mysteries is reading about women solving problems history never intended them to touch. They rarely begin with authority, freedom, or even credibility. I…

Mollie Ann Cox shares a list of women who solve crimes and tackle societal ills all at once. crimereads.com/5-clever-and...

James Lee Burke on Chaucer, Violence, and the State of America The late Toni Morrison wrote, “Those writers plying their craft near to or far from the throne of raw power, of military power, of empire building and countinghouses, writers who construct meaning …

"Denial is why we are doing it again. We have a president who is killing people now. There is blood all over his hands."

James Lee Burke on Chaucer, Violence, and the State of America

crimereads.com/james-lee-bu...
#AuthorInterview by David Masciotra via @crimereads.bsky.social

Trapped and Terrified: 6 Novels That Use Isolation to Create Horror Alone. Scared. Stuck. Hostile, lonely environments are not uncommon in horror books. But exactly how authors use isolation to write characters who are trapped is fascinating because you can see ver…

Saratoga Schaefer on six novels that use isolation to create horror. crimereads.com/isolation-th...

A Gothic Novel of Old Shanghai: When the House Isn’t Enough. Gothic novels were my first love. I devoured Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Wuthering Heights, and everything else in a stack of novels bequeathed by a neighbor when they moved. After a few books I realized t…

Lessons learned by a historical novelist writing a Gothic novel for the first time. crimereads.com/gothic-novel...

James Sallis: A Remembrance I met James Sallis for the first time in Phoenix in July. I had landed at midnight for a reading at the famous Poisoned Pen bookstore. It was 94 degrees F and panic set in as I imagined what the te…

Following news of Sallis' death, Adrian McKinty remembers pancakes in the desert and the distinct brilliance of the Lew Griffin novels. crimereads.com/james-sallis...

How Thomas Harris ‘Found’ His Iconic Serial Killer, Hannibal Lecter On afternoon in September 1979, Linton Weeks was working at Volume One bookstore in Clarksdale, Mississippi, not far from Harris’s home-town of Rich, when a familiar-looking customer came through t…

At @crimereads.bsky.social, I dig into how Thomas Harris created Lecter in the first place: tinyurl.com/4e59athh

Yosha Gunasekera on Ethics, Erasure, and the Human Cost of True Crime For years, I was obsessed with true crime. I grew up on a steady diet of Forensic Files and Dateline, watching with my mother as crimes were distilled into hour-long puzzles with tidy solutions. I …

Yosha Gunasekera on how a popular genre distorts the legal system's harsh realities. crimereads.com/yosha-gunase...

How Thomas Harris ‘Found’ His Iconic Serial Killer, Hannibal Lecter On afternoon in September 1979, Linton Weeks was working at Volume One bookstore in Clarksdale, Mississippi, not far from Harris’s home-town of Rich, when a familiar-looking customer came through t…

Back home in the Delta, Thomas Harris would go to write in a shotgun shack in the middle of a cotton field. crimereads.com/hannibal-lec...

5 Clever and Compelling Heroines in Historical Mystery Series One of the enduring pleasures of historical mysteries is reading about women solving problems history never intended them to touch. They rarely begin with authority, freedom, or even credibility. I…

Mollie Ann Cox shares a list of women who solve crimes and tackle societal ills all at once. crimereads.com/5-clever-and...

Crime and the City: Reno Reno – it’s old school cool!! It’s Vegas before there was ever a Vegas. “The Biggest Little City in the World” with those Italian guys down around Lake Tahoe and with “business interest…

Our international crime reading series pops in on the biggest little city in the world. crimereads.com/crime-and-th...

10 New Books Coming Out This Week Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. Yosha Gunasekera, Midnight Taxi (Berkley) “This is a richly detailed, well-crafted debut mystery led by an appealing am…

Here are this week's brand-new releases! crimereads.com/10-new-books...

For These Detectives, Love Is the Greatest Mystery of All Picture a detective. I bet you’re imagining a haggard drunk sprawled across a Murphy bed, suit rumpled, wallet empty, address book full of clients who won’t pay and exes who hate their guts. Or may…

Love, love, love! crimereads.com/for-these-de...

10 New Books Coming Out This Week Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. Leodora Darlington, The Exes (Dutton) “Darlington’s promising debut has more twists than a bag of pretzels, and the shi…

New books! crimereads.com/10-new-books...