Crime Fiction Links of the Week for January 4, 2020

It's time again for Crime Fiction Links of the Week, our weekly round-up of interesting links about crime fiction from around the web, this week with the best crime fiction of 2019 and the decade, the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA, tributes to M.C. Beaton, The Trial of Christine Keeler, Messiah, Hallmark Christmas movies and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares ten crime novels to read this January. 
• Crossexamining Crime asks if mystery fiction is the prerogative of individualist cultures. 
• Matt Coleman shares his favourite crime novels set in Louisiana. 
• Lyndsay Faye takes a look at what was new for Sherlock Holmes and his fans in 2019.
• The Boston Public Library shares fourteen Holmesian retellings.
• Crossexamining Crime ranks the Sergeant Beef mysteries by Leo Bruce.
• Megan McArdle weighs in one the J.K. Rowling/Robert Galbraith transphobia controversy.
  
• Jess Lourey lists four authors who blur the line between true crime and crime fiction.
• Scottish mystery writer M.C. Beaton, author of the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mysteries, has died aged 83.
  

Best of lists:

• Vicki Weisfeld share her five favourite crime novels of 2019.
• Garrick Webster shares his five favourite crime novels of 2019.
• Sandra Mangan shares her five favourite crime novels of 2019. 
• Raven Crime Reads shares their ten favourite crime novels of 2019. 
• Joy Kluver shares her ten favourite crime novels of 2019.
• Meike of Mystery People shares her top ten mysteries of 2019.
• Scott of Mystery People shares his twelve favourite crime novels of 2019.
• Lesa Holstine shares her favourite books of 2019. 
• Jeff Meyerson shares his favourite books of 2019.
• Ryan Steck shares his favourite action and military thrillers of 2019. 
• Mystery People shares its twelve favourite crime novels of the 2010s.
• The Boston Public Library shares its favourite thrillers of the 2010s.
• Emily Stein shares the best crime podcasts of 2019. 

Comments on the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA:

• Concepción de Leon talks about the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA. 
• Lois Beckett talks about the suspension of Courtney Milan from RWA.
• Mike Glyer reports that the RWA is imploding following the suspension of Courtney Milan. 
• Claire Ryan also talks about the implosion of the RWA.
• Lynn Spencer asks if RWA has lost its way.
• Mike Glyer shares the latest developments in the RWA debacle. 
• Camestros Felapton also weighs in on the latest developments in the RWA debacle and wonders whether the events are just sheer incompetent or an attempted coup to drive certain members out.
• Nora Roberts a.k.a. J.D. Robb shares her own issues with the RWA and explains why she is no longer a member.
• Dr. Debbie Reese takes a look at one of the books that caused the uproar, Sing to Me of Dreams by Kathryn Lynn Davis, and finds it wanting.
• The estimable Dr. Chuck Tingle wades into the Courtney Milan controversy and proves once more that love is real.
  

Film and TV:

• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on season 1 of Dublin Murders. 
• Rebecca Nicholson shares her thoughts on season 3 of The Deuce.
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Ray Donovan.
• Luke Buckmaster calls The Gloaming a fog-drenched crime drama.
• Peter Bradshaw calls In the Line of Duty a run-of-the-mill action thriller. 
• Alex McLevy declares that She's Like a Shadow, a movie about prostitutes, drugs and a serial killer, shouldn't be that boring. 
• Thomas Vinciguerra revisits the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service on its fiftieth anniversary. 
• Zach Vasquez talks about broken resolutions and promises in noir movies.
• Stuart Heritage bemoans that with the rise of subscription channels and streaming services there is way too much TV, much of it good, to watch.
• Mia Galuppo reports that according to Netflix, Murder Mystery was their most popular title in 2019.
• Actress Sue Lyon, best known for playing the titular role in Lolita, has died aged 73.
• Film critic and director Peter Wollen has died aged 81.
  

Comments on The Trial of Christine Keeler:

• Lucy Mangan calls The Trial of Christine Keeler a furiously fast and fun ride.
• Tanya Gold profiles Christine Keeler, the young British woman at the heart of the so-called Profumo affair. 

Comments on Messiah:

• Lucy Mangan compares the thriller Messiah to Homeland, but with a religious twist. 
• Nellie Andreeva reports that Messiah will not be streaming in Jordan, even though it was made there.
  

Comments on Hallmark Christmas movies:

• Nancy Coleman is bothered by the portrayal of Hanukkah and Judaism in general in the Hallmark Christmas movies.  
• Britni de la Cretaz finds certain antisemitic tropes in Hallmark Christmas movies with Jewish characters. 
• Amanda Marcotte declares that Hallmark Christmas movies are fascist propaganda.
  

Awards:

• The winner of the 2019 Reprint of the Year Award has been announced. 
• The winners of the 2019 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been announced. 
• The winner of the 2019 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents has been announced. 
• Crime fiction and screenwriter Richard Price has been named the recipient of the WGA East’s Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement. 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Leah Schnelbach shares writing advice from Chuck Tingle. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about book birthdays.
• Camestros Felapton discusses the Goodreads troll problem.
• Cory Doctorow reports that the private equity firm KKR bought the library e-book distributor Overdrive.
  

Interviews:

• Paul Davis interviews Craig Johnson.
• Kate Vane interviews David Young. 
• Mystery People interviews Larry Sweazy.
• Mystery People interviews Matt Coyle.
• Rachel Kramer Bussel interviews Cleo Coyle a.k.a. Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini.
  

Reviews:

• Sandra Mangan reviews Deathly Affair by Leigh Russell.
• Mike Parker reviews Deadly Enterprise by Kevin G. Chapman.
• Portable Magic reviews A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone. 
• J. Kingston Pierce reviews Dust in the Heart by Ralph Dennis. 
• Bitter Tea and Mystery reviews The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley.
• Mystery People reviews Hi-Five by Joe Ide.
• Jake Arnott reviews Diary of a Murderer by Kim Young-ha. 
• Houman Barekat reviews The Living Days by Ananda Devi. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories by P.D. James.
• Lesa Holstine reviews Overdue by Elizabeth Spann Craig.
• Caroline Cushman reviews Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews and The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall. 
• Bill Capossere reviews Radicalized by Cory Doctorow. 

Classics reviews:

• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1902 mystery The Grand Babylon Hotel by Arnold Bennett.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1934 crime novel The Unfinished Crime by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.
• Joe Kenney revisits Dragon Lord of the Underworld, a 1935 Spider pulp novel by Grant Stockbridge a.k.a. Norvell Page.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1937 Sergeant Beef mystery Case Without a Corpse by Leo Bruce. 
• Vintage Pop Fictions revisits the 1943 Perry Mason mystery The Case of the Buried Clock by Erle Stanley Gardner.
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1943 mystery Crimson Friday by Dorothy Cameron Disney.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1952 suspense novel The Deep End by Fredric Brown.
• Joe Kenney revisits Operation Deep Six, a 1972 novel in The Aquanauts men's adventure series by Ken Stanton a.k.a. Manning Lee Stokes.
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1979 suspense novel The Menace Within by Ursula Curtiss.
• Bitter Tea and Mystery revisits the 1979 holiday mystery The Twelve Deaths of Christmas by Marian Babson.
• Nicolás Obregón revisits Resurrection Man by Ian Rankin, winner of the 2004 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
• Ellison Cooper revisits California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker, winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
• Hank Phillippi Ryan revisits Citizen Vince by Jess Walter, winner of the 2006 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
  

Con reports:

• Florida Weekly reports that crime fiction author Alex Segura will kick off the Famous Author Lecture series in Fort Myers, Florida.
• Martin Edwards looks back at the events he attended and the people he met there in 2019.
  

Research:

• Maria Popova recounts how mathematician Johannes Kepler defended his mother in a witchcraft trial in 1619.
• The Guardian reports that a headless torso found in a cave in Idaho has been identified as Joseph Henry Loveless, a murderer who escaped from prison in 1916.
• Chaiyot Yongcharoenchai reports about the disappearance of Thai activist Porlajee "Billy" Rakchongcharoen
• Hansi Lo Wang reports that in the US prisoners are officially counted as residents of the place where they are imprisoned, but cannot vote, which leads to a distortion of voting districts. 

Free online fiction:

• "Monster" by Naomi Kritzer in Clarkesworld.  
• "The Porcupine Method" by J. Danielle Dorn in Tough. 
• "Head Hunters" by Gary Lovisi in Yellow Mama.
• "Holiday Season" by Don Stoll in Yellow Mama.
• "The Story of Your Life" by Jason J. McCuiston in Crimson Streets.
• "Alembic" by Bruce Robinson in The Five-Two.
  

Odds and ends: 

• Watch a trailer for The Gentleman.