THIS WEEK: In 1922, Annie Oakley set a record, breaking 100 consecutive clay targets at a contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina.
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- “[W]hat are these scammers really thinking? And what is it to be one of their victims?” Haley Cohen Gilliland and Andy Wright interview the conners and the conned. | Topic
- Ryan Chapman reads two home invasion novels and contemplates the meaning of fear of outsiders in the context of his new life as a homeowner. | Longreads
- “I learned that a cult may make use of the whole range of tactics to convince people to do things. They’ll use courtesy, and habit, and kindness…They’ll use criticism and punishment too.” | Lit Hub
- “Every generation gets its own Keanu Reeves, except every generation’s Keanu Reeves is this Keanu Reeves.” Alex Pappademas profiles the progress of a modern thriller legend. | GQ
- Revisiting past Edgar winners: this time Mariah Fredericks looks at Donald E. Westlake’s crime-comedy classic, God Save the Mark.| Criminal Element
- A mining colony, a wrongful incarceration, and robot fugitives: all the debut crime novels you need to read this month. | CrimeReads
- Angie Kim on how to write gripping courtroom scenes (and bending the rules of evidence in the name of story). | CrimeReads
- Mariah Fredericks on the many parallels between the Gilded Age and contemporary America, and how the crimes of the Gilded Age manifest today. | CrimeReads
- Alexander McCall Smith talks Scandinavian crime fiction, the role of philosophy in his life and work, and his many sources of inspiration. | CrimeReads
- From Reefer Madness to Dopefiend to Narcos, Gary Phillips compares the drug war in reality to its portrayal in pop culture. | CrimeReads
- Charles Lane on the early days of private detectives and undercover police work in America. | CrimeReads
- Peter May on 1970s newspapers, a tumultuous era in Europe, and the making of a classic thriller. | CrimeReads
- Allen Morris Jones on the legacy of crime icon James Crumley, and the burgeoning crime fiction renaissance in the Rocky Mountains. | CrimeReads
- The powerful women spies of WWII: Alisa Smith on tight-lipped spymaster Vera Atkins and why women were way better at keeping secrets than their male counterparts. | CrimeReads
- Meet the biker gangs, bone detectives, and back alleys of Quebecois noir, as Paul French takes us on a guided tour of Montreal crime fiction. | CrimeReads
