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Chris McGinley

Chris McGinley's Coal Black (Shotgun Honey, 2019) is a collection of crime stories set in the hills of Appalachia. His work has appeared in Mystery Tribune, Mystery Weekly, Tough, and other forums. He teaches middle school in Lexington, KY where he lives with his wife.

Crime and Redemption in the Films of the Dardenne Brothers

The Belgian filmmakers have been exploring the quieter, more human moments of crime stories since the very beginning.

How The French Connection Reinvented (and Exploded) the Police Procedural

William Friedkin's 1971 masterpiece is all about the chase. That's what distinguishes it from everything that came before and after.

September 2, 2021 By Chris McGinley

Zoë Lund and the Dialectical Method of Bad Lieutenant

Lund's legacy as a writer is overshadowed by the heroin, her looks, and her collaborators. But a closer study of her writing methods reveals genius at work.

February 4, 2021 By Chris McGinley

Virginia Kellogg: The Forgotten Screenwriter Behind A String of Classic Noirs

She wrote some of the greatest crime movies in Hollywood's Golden Age. Today, we know almost nothing about her.

June 19, 2020 By Chris McGinley

America’s First Crime Novel Was Rural Noir—We Should Still Be Reading It

Reconsidering Charles Brockden Brown’s 1798 novel, Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker

March 12, 2020 By Chris McGinley

The Strange Rural Noir of Wilma Dykeman’s The Tall Woman

Rediscovering A Lost Classic of Mid-Century Literature

January 29, 2020 By Chris McGinley