Crime Fiction Links of the Week for January 2, 2021

 

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 mysteries and thrillers of 2020, tributes to William Link, The Serpent, The Dry and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Garrick Webster looks ahead at crime novels coming out in 2021. 
• Ayo Onatade shares some 2021 crime novels she is looking forward to.
  
• Will Gore shares the best crime novel to buy for the holidays. 
• T.A. Willberg lists the best loved detective agencies in crime fiction.
• Kristi Bahrenburg Janzen shares five classic spy novels by and about women.
• Tara Moss explains why classic hardboiled crime fiction is so full of descriptions of clothing.
  

 

Best of 2020:

• Mike Parker shares his five favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Garrick Webster shares his five favourite crime novels of 2020.
• Declan Burke and Declan Hughes share their favourite crime novels of 2020.
• Adam Woog shares his ten favourite crime novels of 2020.
• Jon Coates shares his favourite crime novels of 2020.
• Natasha Cooper shares her favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Paul Burke shares his favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Sophie Roell shares her favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Jacob Collins shares his ten favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Lesa Holstine shares her favourite mysteries, crime novels and others of 2020. 
• For Winter Nights shares their favourite crime novels, mysteries and others of 2020. 
  
• Crime Time share their favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Book Page shares their favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Waterstones shares its favourite crime novels and thrillers of 2020.
  
• Murder by the Book shares their favourite mysteries and crime novels of 2020. 
• Crime by the Book shares their favourite crime novels of 2020.
  
• Book Marks shares the best reviewed mysteries and crime novels of 2020. 
• The New York Public Library shares its favourite crime novels of 2020.
  
• Rachael Pingel shares her seventeen favourite thrillers of 2020. 
• She Reads shares their favourite thrillers of 2020.
  
• Jennifer Marie Lin shares her favourite mysteries and thrillers of 2020.
  
• Michael J. Seidlinger sheres his favourite mysteries and thrillers of 2020.
• Kellye Garrett shares her favourite crime novels and thrillers of 2020.
  
• Jamie Canavés shares their favourite mystery and suspense novels of 2020. 
• Fifteen crime fiction writers share their favourite crime novels of 2020.
  
• Sarah Weinman shares her favourite works in the crime genre of 2020. 
• Steven Charnock shares his favourite crime TV shows of 2020.
• Steven Charnock also shares his favourite crime movies of 2020. 
• Olivia Rutigliano shares her fifteen favourite crime movies of 2020.
  
• George Easter offers a master list of the various "best crime novels of 2020" lists.
• Fraser Massey also offers a round-up of the various "best crime novels of 2020" lists and makes a top ten list of the most mentioned books.
  

Film and TV:

• Jack Seale calls the Danish crime drama Equinox a cross between The Da Vinci Code and Scandinavian noir.
  
• Alex McLevy calls season 3 of Cobra Kai broad, dumb fun and an improvement compared to season 2.
  
• Alex McLevy shares his thoughts on the martial arts science fiction film Jiu Jitsu. 
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the thriller Perfume, which is at least partly science fiction. 
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Your Honor. 
• Dwyer Murphy shares the best crime TV shows of the 2010s.
  
• Dwyer Murphy shares several international thrillers to watch for New Year's Day.
  
• Vicki Lucas revisits the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball. 
• Nicholas Whyte revisits the 1989 adventure movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  
• Scott Tobias revisits the 2000 drugs drama Traffic for its 20th anniversary. 
• British actor Basil Moss, best known for his appearance in UFO, You Only Live Twice and First Among Equals, has died aged 85.
• French actor Robert Hossein, best known for playing Joffrey de Peyrac in the Angelique movies of the 1960s, has died aged 93.
  

 

Tributes to William Link: 

• William Link, co-creator of Columbo and Murder She Wrote, has died aged 87.
• J. Kingston Pierce remembers William Link. 
• The Columbophile remembers William Link. 
• Eli Countryman shares an obituary for William Link.
  

 

Comments on The Serpent:

• Rebecca Nicholson praises the performance of Tahir Rahim in the serial killer drama The Serpent.
• Ryan Gilbey interviews Tahir Rahim, star of The Serpent.
  

 

Comments on The Dry:

• Luke Buckmaster calls The Dry a gripping, tough and psychologically intense thriller.  
  
• Walter Marsh praises the devastating imagery of rural Australia in the noir thriller The Dry. 

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2020 Nero and Black Orchid Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2020 Deutscher Krimipreis have been announced. 
• The winner of the 2020 Reprint of the Year Award has been announced.
  
• The winner of the 2020 Darth Vader Parenthood Award for Outstandingly Horrible Fictional Parents has been announced. 
• The winner of the 2020 Jonathan and Martha Kent Fictional Parent of the Year Award has been announced.

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Ann Langley explains how the difficult year 2020 impacted her writing. 
• Stephanie M. Wytovich talks about using bibliomancy as a drafting tool.
  
• Several online writing classes at the Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers are on sale right now. 
• Elizabeth A. Harris reports that book sales have gone up in 2020, but that most sales happened online at Amazon and other large retailers, while indie bookstores are struggling.
• John Henley reports about the situation of the famous book stalls along the banks of the Seine in Paris, France

 

Interviews:

• Simon Mayo interviews Ian Rankin.
• Deborah Kalb interviews Edwin Hill.
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Edwin Hill.
• Keeley Ryan interviews Anthony J. Quinn.
  
• Novel Suspects interviews Taylor Adams.
• Alan Petersen interviews Robert McCaw.
• Robert Justice interviews Tori Eldridge.
• Mystery & Suspense interviews Cheryl Bradshaw.
• Jon Wisniewski interviews Dwight Holing.
  

Reviews:

• Murder by the Book reviews Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Crosby. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Cold Wind by Paige Shelton. 
• Books Are My Cwtches reviews Winterkill by Ragnar Jónasson, translated by David Warriner.
  
• No More Grumpy Bookseller reviews The Arctic Fury by Greer Macallister.
  
• Jennifer Marie Lin reviews One by One by Ruth Ware. 
• Publishers Weekly reviews The Silenced Women by Frederik Weisel.
  
• Publishers Weekly reviews Hard Times by Les Edgerton.
  
• Catherine Turnbull reviews The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis. 
• Geza Tatrallyay reviews A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de Léon. 
• Linda Regan reviews The Spy Who Inspired Me by Stephen Clarke.
  
• Kirkus reviews The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict.
  
• Murder by the Book reviews The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne. 
• Eric Ellis reviews The System by Ryan Gattis.
  
• Tricia Chappell reviews The Package by Sebastian Fitzek.
  
• For Winter Nights reviews The Stasi Game by David Young.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Closely Habored Secrets by Bree Baker.
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Murder at Veronica's Diner by J.D. Griffo and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Murder at an Irish Christmas by Carlene O'Connor. 
• Beth Kanell reviews Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg.
  
• James Tivendale reviews The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. 
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. 

Classics reviews:

• Martin Edwards revisits the 1934 mystery Big Ben Strikes Eleven by David Magarshack.
  
• Publishers Weekly revisits the 1944 mystery Checkmate to Murder by E.C.R. Lorac.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1948 suspense novel The Chocolate Cobweb by Charlotte Armstrong.
• Bitter Tea and Mystery revisits the 1949 humorous crime novel Do Not Murder Before Christmas by Jack Iams.
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1952 Charles Blessington mystery Ambush for Anatol by John Sherwood.
  

 

Research:

• Romell Brown, a US death row inmate who survived a botched execution attempt in 2009, has died of the corona virus aged 64.
• Jedidajah Otte reports that the execution of Lisa Montgomery, who murdered a pregnant woman and cut her baby out of her womb in 2004, has been rescheduled until after Joe Biden's inauguration.
• Maggie Milstein revisits the 1997 murder of Ennis Cosby in Los Angeles, California.
  

 
Free online fiction:

• "One Bad Spin" by April Snellings in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Payback Is A Bitch" by Tom Barker in Mystery Tribune. 
• "The Hustle" by J.B. Stevens in Mystery Tribune. 
• "I Don't Want to Live with Monkeys" by K.A. Laity in Punk Noir Magazine. 
  
• "Who Let The Dogs Out?" by Renato Bratkovič in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Don't Be Cross, Mr. King, It's Christmas" by A.C.F. Wilson in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Concourse, Of Course" by A.C.F. Wilson in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Leadbetter's Last Letter" by Lincoln Jacques in Tough. 
• "Everlasting High" by Neva Bryan in Tough. 
• "Love and Death" by Jacqueline Seewald in Flash Bang Mysteries. 
• "Last Day, 1966" by Diana Powell Lukoff in The Five-Two. 
  

 Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for The Little Things.