CrimeReads Brief: Week of January 20, 2019

THIS WEEK: In 1924, Dennis Lynds, best known for the mysteries he wrote under the pen name Michael Collins, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

• • ‘[I]nstead of crying out in despair, her response is, “So, yeah, this happened. I better clean.”‘ Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ interviews Oyinkan Braithwaite about her buzz-book debut, My Sister, The Serial Killer. | LARB
  •  “Together, their partnership allowed an entire new genre to take root, but the real success of Nordic noir would come later.” On Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, the couple that launched an era of Scandinavian crime fiction. | Scroll.in
  • Joanna Robinson breaks down all the literary allusions you may or may not be missing in the new season of True Detective. | Vanity Fair
  •  From Korean Noir to Quebecois Thrillers, all the best new international crime fiction coming to U.S. readers this month. | CrimeReads
  •  All the crime movies we’re excited to see in 2019. Including new noirs from Scorsese, Tarantino, plus Rene Russo in the gallery, Amy Adams in the window, and the rise of the “social thriller.” | CrimeReads
  • From Hannibal Lecter to Mr. Mercedes to Anton Chigurh, Taylor Adams looks at 5 of the best thriller villains of all-time. | CrimeReads
  • Alan Prendergast tells the story of a convict who survived by becoming “the sultan of snitches, the crown prince of confidential informants.” | Westword
  • From Hannibal Lecter to Mr. Mercedes to Anton Chigurh, Taylor Adams looks at 5 of the best thriller villains of all-time. | CrimeReads
  • Naples is inextricably linked with crime, so it’s no surprise that some of the most powerful crime books in recent memory were written about the city. Paul French examines. | CrimeReads
  • Jessica Barry on the doomsday videos and outdoor guides that helped her prepare to write a survival thriller. | Criminal Element
  • New voices for a new year. CrimeReads editors look at January’s best debut thrillers, mysteries, and crime novels. | CrimeReads
  • British crime writer and bookseller Joseph Knox on how he first fell in love with American Noir. | CrimeReads
  • Lisa Levy looks at thrillers that explore the very complicated and fraught dynamics of mother-daughter relationships. | CrimeReads
  • “I didn’t tell anyone what had happened for decades.” Christopher Yates remembers growing up with a psychopath next door. | CrimeReads
  • Keith Scribner recommends 8 modern classics of rural noir, featuring Truman Capote, Daniel Woodrell, and Bonnie Jo Campbell. | CrimeReads
  • January is a big month for high-octane literature, as Ryan Steck rounds up the very best new action, political, legal, and espionage thrillers. | CrimeReads
  • “Journalism is great because they really beat the literary preciousness out of you.” Matthew Quirk talks with Steph Cha about reporting, conspiracy theories, and thrillers. | CrimeReads
  • “He was fascinated with the psychology that produced a murderer, or a victim—the why more than the how.” Neil Nyren guides us through the life and work of Nicholas Blake, aka Cecil Day-Lewis. | CrimeReads
  • “True crime was lurid straight out of the birth canal.” Soraya Roberts looks at the long history of true crime, and the eternal struggle against exploitative content. | Longreads
  • “[K]ey elements of fire science…were wrong. Fatally wrong.” Edward Humes on arson investigation, fire science, and the moment that everything changed. | CrimeReads
  • On the long history and recent revival of that old font from the Nancy Drew book covers (and why you’re seeing a font previously reserved for pulp everywhere now.) | Vox
  • The long copyright freeze is (finally) over! Rounding up works from the dawn of the Golden Age of detective fiction, now in the public domain. | CrimeReads
  • Abby from Crime By The Book looks ahead in the year in crime fiction (just in case you need even more books to look forward to). | Crime by the Book
  • “I didn’t tell anyone what had happened for decades.” Christopher Yates remembers growing up with a psychopathic neighbor. | CrimeReads
  • Rob Hart talks culinary crimes and once and for all settles the “Is the hot dog a sandwich?” debate. (spoiler alert: it is.) | Lit Reactor
  • “Minds did not imagine horrors but saw clearly the horribleness of their universe.” Understanding the works of Edgar Allan Poe as psycho-thrillers. | CrimeReads
  • From classic noirs, to crime comedies, to social thrillers, we rounded up all the best thrillers and crime movies out this year. | CrimeReads
  • New reads for the armchair traveler: rounding up all the best international fiction out this January. | CrimeReads

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