Crime Reads » Essays

The Terrifying Draw of the Desert

The Terrifying Draw of the Desert

Adam Plantinga on a lifelong fascination with the desert and its dangers.

By Adam Plantinga | April 11, 2025

Constructing a Fictional Serial Killer

Constructing a Fictional Serial Killer

How California's most notorious killers helped inspire Omar Hussain's debut novel.

By Omar Hussain | April 10, 2025

Small Towns and Murder Mysteries: An Enduring Fascination

Small Towns and Murder Mysteries: An Enduring Fascination

Kelly Mullen on Villisca, Iowa and the The Villisca Axe Murders

By Kelly Mullen | April 10, 2025

Three Kinds of Freak: Writing Heroes and Stories that Dismantle the Status Quo

Three Kinds of Freak: Writing Heroes and Stories that Dismantle the Status Quo

Zee Carlstrom on writing more interesting characters.

By Zee Carlstrom | April 9, 2025

Molly Harper on Using Romantic Subplots to Help Characters Solve Mysteries

Molly Harper on Using Romantic Subplots to Help Characters Solve Mysteries

"I can’t fathom writing a story that doesn’t have some romance element to it."

By Molly Harper | April 8, 2025

Why Tariq Ashkanani Chose to Set His New Novel in America

Why Tariq Ashkanani Chose to Set His New Novel in America

"There is freedom in being able to play a little fast and loose with the rules, a recurring motif that I find predominantly in US fiction."

By Tariq Ashkanani | April 8, 2025

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

Remembering the Bleak, Beautiful Poetry of Ken Bruen's Noir

By Scott Montgomery | April 7, 2025

High Net Worth Victims: Why We Love our Murderees to be Filthy Rich

By Matt Plass | April 7, 2025

Murder and “Mitteleuropa” in Agatha Christie

By Naomi Kaye | April 4, 2025

‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’ and Other Men’s Adventure Magazine Legends

‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’ and Other Men’s Adventure Magazine Legends

Tales from the world of resurgent interest in those midcentury magazines with outlandish headlines and legions of readers.

By Keith Roysdon | April 4, 2025

Bryan Gruley on Research, Inspiration, and a Notorious Hockey Fight

Bryan Gruley on Research, Inspiration, and a Notorious Hockey Fight

Finding a story's emotional truth.

By Bryan Gruley | April 2, 2025

Power and Punishment: Using the Language of Fantasy to Subvert Real-Life Oppression

Power and Punishment: Using the Language of Fantasy to Subvert Real-Life Oppression

"[I]t is in this interplay between power, its exercise, and its fettering that the fantasy genre’s subversive nature shines."

By Shalini Abeysekara | April 2, 2025

Women’s Rights and Women’s Wrongs: Darkly Feminist YA Books

Women’s Rights and Women’s Wrongs: Darkly Feminist YA Books

"The darkness can be more subtle. The feminism can be a vibe."

By Rachel Ekstrom Courage | March 31, 2025

There Is Only One Plot – Things Are Not As They Seem

There Is Only One Plot – Things Are Not As They Seem

Why the Jim Thompson adage still holds true and is the key to good storytelling.

By C.B. Everett | March 28, 2025

Saratoga Schaefer on Exploring Portrayals of Drinking and Sobriety in Genre Fiction

Saratoga Schaefer on Exploring Portrayals of Drinking and Sobriety in Genre Fiction

The author of 'Serial Killer Support Group' explains why they wanted to write a novel with an alternative depiction of sobriety.

By Saratoga Schaefer | March 27, 2025

How To Tell If Your Bucolic Small Town Is Actually a Gateway to Hell

How To Tell If Your Bucolic Small Town Is Actually a Gateway to Hell

On the perils of trusting what's just too good to be true

By Emily Carpenter | March 27, 2025

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