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Curtis Evans
Curtis Evans is the author of Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery and The Spectrum of English Murder and the editor of Clues and Corpses: The Detective Fiction and Mystery Criticism of Todd Downing, Mysteries Unlocked: Essays in Honor of Douglas G. Greene and the Edgar nominated Murder in the Closet: Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall. He blogs at The Passing Tramp.
Florence Rush and the Providence White Slavers
The profitable panic that inspired both journalists and crime writers to focus on the (extremely exaggerated) crisis of "white slavery"
Whatever Happened to Elise De Viane? On The Mystery Woman in Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 Sexual Assault Case
90 years later, few know the story of Hammett's friend-turned-victim, who won a substantial settlement against the author after a violent sexual assault.
The Amazing Tale of Fergus Hume and William Freeman; or, the Critic’s Comeuppance
Critic William Freeman despised the mediocre mysteries of Fergus Hume. But was bad writing all there was to his enduring hatred?
The Actress, the Steward and the Ocean Liner: What Really Happened in Cabin 126?
In 1947, Gay Gibson boarded the Durban Castle. By the end of the voyage, she would be dead at the hands of a crew member. And soon enough, her life and death would make their way into the pulps.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Murder: A Roadside Killing and The Novel That Captured an Era
On Nevada’s 1940 "One-Cent Hitchhiker Slaying"
Something for Everyone: The Swinging Seventies' Gayest Murder Mystery
It's time to take a new look at an under-appreciated cult classic of queer cinema.
Chandler and the Fox: The Mid-Century Correspondence Between Raymond Chandler and James M. Fox
Chandler's letters to a younger crime writer offer a revealing—and often ugly—glimpse into his later years.
19th Century Reading Habits Come To Light Via Delightful Comments Scrawled in the Margins of a Crime Novel
The peculiar marginalia of Lt. Gen. Coote Synge-Hutchinson
The Poison Pen Letter: The Early 20th Century's Strangest Crime Wave
Across America and Europe, people couldn't stop writing nasty letters. Soon the courts were overwhelmed with epistolary assaults.
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