Crime Reads » Essays

The Shark-Infested Waters of Hawaiian Detective Fiction

The Shark-Infested Waters of Hawaiian Detective Fiction

The history of detective novels set in Hawai`i is long and exceedingly complex. Where is it all headed?

By Eric Redman | June 9, 2021

Escaping Into British Humor Is the Perfect Balm

Escaping Into British Humor Is the Perfect Balm

In the crisp sentences of Wodehouse and the wry scenarios of Jerome, one author finds the escape she needs.

By Connie Berry | June 9, 2021

On Letting Go of Toxic Silence and Acknowledging the Hardships of Mental Illness

On Letting Go of Toxic Silence and Acknowledging the Hardships of Mental Illness

My brother's bipolar disorder troubled him all his life. But the stigma of being labeled caused just as much pain.

By Marilyn Peterson Haus | June 9, 2021

Behind the Pine Curtain: East Texas’s Growing Influence on Crime Fiction

Behind the Pine Curtain: East Texas’s Growing Influence on Crime Fiction

How East Texas has established itself as a major force within American Noir.

By James Wade | June 8, 2021

How to Write an Effective Villain

How to Write an Effective Villain

Scouring classic thrillers for tips on how to write villains that will keep haunting readers long after the last page is read.

By Paul Howarth | June 8, 2021

Why the Life of a Radio DJ Is Perfectly Suited to Crime Fiction

Why the Life of a Radio DJ Is Perfectly Suited to Crime Fiction

Long nights, mysterious callers, and a fear of the dreaded 'dead air'

By Michael Bradley | June 8, 2021

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

Tangier: Spies, Smugglers, and Writers in the International City

By Paul French | June 7, 2021

The Unjustly Forgotten Crime Novels of John Sanford, Midcentury America's Radical Jewish Conscience

By Jack Mearns | June 5, 2021

The Art of Balancing Multiple Mystery Series

By J.A. Jance | June 4, 2021

What Do Mystery Writers and Therapists Have in Common?

What Do Mystery Writers and Therapists Have in Common?

Therapists, like detectives, piece together clues and information in order to solve the mystery: that of a client's own dilemmas.

By Philippa East | June 4, 2021

Whatever Happened to Elise De Viane? On The Mystery Woman in Dashiell Hammett’s 1931 Sexual Assault Case

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.

By Curtis Evans | June 3, 2021

Stopping for a Moment to Appreciate the Original 1961 film <em>One Hundred and One Dalmatians</em>

Stopping for a Moment to Appreciate the Original 1961 film One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Aside from having one of the most high-stakes plots in crime film history, the film is an aesthetic masterpiece and an innovative development in the history of animation.

By Olivia Rutigliano | June 3, 2021

A Translator Considers the Joys of Crime Fiction

A Translator Considers the Joys of Crime Fiction

On the intense excitement of translating a mystery, line by line.

By Michael Meigs | June 3, 2021

Finding Inspiration for Speculative Fiction in the History of Reproduction

Finding Inspiration for Speculative Fiction in the History of Reproduction

On self-conception, virgin birth, and deep male anxieties.

By Sara Flannery Murphy | June 3, 2021

What Makes The Dark Side of Self-Help So Fascinating?

What Makes The Dark Side of Self-Help So Fascinating?

"I’m fairly certain that, if I was a sociopath and driven enough, I could build a little cult of my own."

By C. L. Taylor | June 3, 2021

The Silent Woman

The Silent Woman

From musician to muse to wife to sex doll—the savage remaking of Alma Mahler

By Maria Hummel | June 1, 2021

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