Crime Reads » Curtis Evans

The Other Woman’s Name: The Triangular Love Saga of Dorothy L. Sayers, John Cournos and Helen Kestner

The Other Woman’s Name: The Triangular Love Saga of Dorothy L. Sayers, John Cournos and Helen Kestner

Sayers was once madly in love with the high-brow Cournos, who treated her callously and later married another writer. All three wrote detective novels.

By Curtis Evans | August 19, 2026

Elmer Apple and the Chang Gang, Or, A Microcosm of

Elmer Apple and the Chang Gang, Or, A Microcosm of "Yellow Peril" Crime Fiction

Was Apple's Asian supervillian a set of harmful stereotypes, or just bizarrely crafted and terribly written?

By Curtis Evans | November 24, 2025

American Carnage: Hammett's Red Harvest and Mass Violence in the United States

American Carnage: Hammett's Red Harvest and Mass Violence in the United States

"The intensity of the mass violence which afflicted the United States in the years following World War One is truly remarkable"

By Curtis Evans | July 14, 2025

Detections and Digressions: <br>A Close Reading of P.D. James’ <em>Devices and Desires</em>

Detections and Digressions:
A Close Reading of P.D. James’ Devices and Desires

James set out to capture British society more broadly than her predecessors, yet her novels had more in common with the Golden Age than she ever cared to admit

By Curtis Evans | March 20, 2025

Fredric Brown: Chronicler of Con Artists, Clowns, and Capitalist Excess

Fredric Brown: Chronicler of Con Artists, Clowns, and Capitalist Excess

"Fredric Brown had...a powerful sense of the absurdly capricious cruelty of life"

By Curtis Evans | December 27, 2024

The Many Faces of Nigel Morland, King of the Crime Fiction Fabulists

The Many Faces of Nigel Morland, King of the Crime Fiction Fabulists

Morland was best known for his mediocre mysteries featuring the mercurial Mrs. Pym. The real story of his life is much stranger.

By Curtis Evans | September 25, 2024

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

Ludicrous But Memorable: Agatha Christie’s The Big Four

By Curtis Evans | August 22, 2024

The Critic Did It: Howard Spring Takes on The Detection Club

By Curtis Evans | July 19, 2024

Red, Hot and Blue: A Defense of Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train

By Curtis Evans | June 18, 2024

Who Was Q. Patrick, the Golden Age Mystery Author?

Who Was Q. Patrick, the Golden Age Mystery Author?

Curtis Evans investigates one of the great, underappreciated writers of the Golden Age.

By Curtis Evans | June 5, 2024

Fifteen Minutes a Day, Celestine: The Crime Writing Career of Nedra Tyre

Fifteen Minutes a Day, Celestine: The Crime Writing Career of Nedra Tyre

Curtis Evans on the career of the genteel, Southern of writer of "Mouse in Eternity"

By Curtis Evans | May 10, 2024

“My Mind Had Been Fired By Reading Cheap Detective Stories

“My Mind Had Been Fired By Reading Cheap Detective Stories"

The colorful criminal escapades of the Gunn Brothers of San Francisco and Manhattan and the classic 1942 noir novel that came out of it all

By Curtis Evans | April 18, 2024

A Bloody-Minded Business: Julian Symons’ Evolution as a Crime Fiction Critic

A Bloody-Minded Business: Julian Symons’ Evolution as a Crime Fiction Critic

The seismic shifts in interpretation throughout the critic's long career say as much about society as they do about the individual

By Curtis Evans | April 15, 2024

Hello, Miss Fenwick: Getting Reacquainted with a Crime Fiction Great

Hello, Miss Fenwick: Getting Reacquainted with a Crime Fiction Great

Elizabeth Fenwick's crime novels were very well-received. How come we don't know much about her now?

By Curtis Evans | March 28, 2024

Drama King: Hake Talbot and the Art of the Impossible

Drama King: Hake Talbot and the Art of the Impossible

Appreciating two cleverly deceptive tales by mystery's greatest showman

By Curtis Evans | February 8, 2024

The Real Life Marital Imbroglio of Ernie Sherry, Son of Crime Writer Edna Sherry

The Real Life Marital Imbroglio of Ernie Sherry, Son of Crime Writer Edna Sherry

Edna, Ernie and the Fabulous Baker Girls

By Curtis Evans | November 3, 2023

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