Crime Fiction Links of the Week for January 9, 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 as well as a look ahead at 2021 and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels to read this January.
  
• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week.
• Lisa Levy shares five psychological thrillers to read this January. 
• Paul French takes a look at crime fiction set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Stacie Murphy shares ten historical crime novels that trace the history of New York City.
  
• Zach Vasquez shares nine crime novels which feature characters of colour passing as white. 
• Crossexamining Crime shares a list of classic mysteries featuring cats.
  
• Laura Thompson celebrates the centennary of Hercule Poirot.
  
• Dwyer Murphy revisits a 1977 documentary about Ross Macdonald a.k.a. Kenneth Millar.
  
• Crossexamining Crime shares their appreciation for the works of the Australian mystery writer June Wright. 
• Rachel Hawkins takes a look at the many retellings of Jane Eyre.
  
• Steele Curry shares a tribute to the late John Le Carré.
• Rachel Ayers talks about the magic of libraries. 
• Olivia Rutigliano shares ten classic crime novels which have just entered the public domain.
• Urban fantasy writer and podcaster Anton Strout has died aged 50.
  
• Crime fiction, horror and western writer Guy N. Smith has died aged 81.
  

 

Best of 2020:

• Scott Montgomery shares his ten favourite crime novels of 2020.
  
• Steve Donaghue shares his favourite mysteries of 2020.
• Steve Donaghue shares his favourite thrillers of 2020.
• For Winter Nights shares their favourite crime novels and thrillers of 2020.
• Margie Bunting shares her favourite crime novels and others of 2020.
  
• The Killing Times shares their top twenty crime dramas of 2020 in a four part post.

A Look Ahead at 2021:

• Larry Gandle and George Easter look ahead at crime novels coming out in 2021.
• Jeff Popple looks ahead at crime novels coming out in 2021.
• Molly Odintz looks ahead at crime novels coming out in 2021.
• Paul Hirons looks ahead at the crime dramas coming out in 2021. 
• Dead Good also looks ahead at crime series coming out in 2021.

 

Film and TV:

• Peter Bradshaw calls Deliver Us From Evil a frenzied hitman thriller from South Korea.
  
• Paul Levinson declares that the crime movie Rust Creek is neither rusty nor creeky. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Vanguard an amiable but silly action comedy. 
• Scott Tobias declares that the much loathed gangster movie Only God Forgives actually isn't all that bad.
  
• Noel Murray calls The Dissident a nuanced documentary about murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 
• Rebecca Nicholson shares her thoughts on the latest series of Death in Paradise.
  
• James Donaghy shares his thoughts on the first two episodes of the final season of the French crime drama Spiral. 
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Your Honor.
• Garrick Webster looks ahead at season 2 of the Swedish crime drama Rebecka Martinsson. 
• Michael Sragow revisits the 1921 adventure movie The Mark of Zorro for its 100th anniversary and notes how much Zorro influenced the superhero genre.  
• Sabina Stent revisits the 20016 neo-noir movie Hollywoodland.
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the 2011 thriller Unknown. 
• Keith Roysdon takes a look at the most unusual investigators in crime dramas of the 1960s and 1970s.
  
• The Columbophile remembers the Columbo co-stars (as well as producer William Link and voice actor Claus Biederstaedt) who died in 2020.
  
• Lanre Bakare reports that a record number of the highest grossing Hollywood films of 2020 were directed by women. 
  
• Jazz musician and film composer Claude Bolling, who wrote the score for many gangster and horror movies, has died aged 90.   
• British actress Barbara Shelley, best known for her appearances in various Hammer horror films as well as Doctor Who, The Saint and The Avengers, has died aged 88. 
  
• American actress Tanya Roberts, best known for her appearances in A View to a Kill, Beastmaster, Sheena - Queen of the Jungle and Charlie's Angels, has died aged 65, a day after a premature death announcement was retracted.
  

 

Awards:

• The 2021 Shamus Award is open for submissions.
• The 2021 Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest is open for submissions.
• Harper Collins is launching Killing It: The Killer Reads Competition for Undiscovered Writers.
  

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• David Rohlfing talks about writing his latest mystery novel Deliberate Duplicity. 
• Edwin Hill talks about his writing process.
• Kate Elliott explains how she uses her bullet journal. 
• Seanan McGuire explains how My Little Pony taught her how to write glittery and fluffy violence.
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch takes a look at the development of and prospects for audio books. 
• Jim Milliot wonders whether attempts to make the publishing industry more diverse are showing signs of success.
  

 

Interviews:

• Rick Pullen interviews Lawrence Block.
  
• Alison Flood interviews Stuart MacBride.
• Nancie Clare interviews Nev March.
• Alan Petersen interviews Jon Land.
• Suspense Magazine interviews Rachelle Decker.
• Brad Shreve interviews Michelle Arnold.
• Craig Pittman interviews Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
  
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Monica Rodden. 
• Deborah Kalb interviews Robert McCaw.
  
• The Guardian interviews William Gibson. 
• Paul Burke interviews Brad Taylor.
  

Reviews:

• Ayo Onatade reviews The Last Thing to Burn by Will Dean.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Bloodline by Jess Lourey.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews City of Schemes by Victoria Thompson.
  
• Jeff Popple reviews Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare. 
• Maureen Carlyle reviews Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews What Waits For You by Joseph Schneider. 
• Suspense Magazine reviews The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben. 
• Angie Barry reviews The Breaker by Nick Petrie. 
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Pickard County Atlas by Chris Harding Thornton.
• For Winter Nights reviews The Coffinmaker's Garden by Stuart MacBride.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Crocodile Tears by Mercedes Rosende, translated by Tim Gutteridge. 
• Sandra Mangan reviews Blood Secret by Jaye Ford.
  
• Janet Webb reviews Wrong Alibi by Christina Dodd.  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Fatal Divisions by Claire Booth.
  
• Sandra Mangan reviews When Darkness Falls by Emma Salisbury. 
• Ayo Onatade reviews Slough House by Mick Herron.
  
• Angie Barry reviews The Push by Ashley Audrain. 
• Ayo Onatade reviews Daughters of the Night by Laura Shepherd Robinson.
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Olive Bright, Pigeoneer by Stephanie Graves. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews To Fetch a Felon by Jennifer Hawkins. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Fishing for Trouble by Elizabeth Logan and tries a recipe from the book. 
• Suspense Magzine reviews From Beer to Eternity by Sherry Harris.
  
• Andrew Mather reviews The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. 
• Kat Hooper and Tadiana Jones review Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer. 
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard.  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews A Surprise For Christmas, edited by Martin Edwards.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Forgiving Stephen Redmond by A.J. Sidransky.
  
• Martin Edwards reviews Cover Me: The Vintage Art of Pan Books: 1950-1965 by Colin Larkin.

Classics reviews:

• David Masciotra revisits Ernest Hemingway's 1937 foray into crime fiction To Have and Have Not.
• Bitter Tea and Mystery revisits the 1946 Hercule Poirot mystery The Hollow by Agatha Christie.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1951 mystery Nipped in the Bud by Stuart Palmer. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1955 crime novel A Touch of Death by Charles Williams. 
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1956 Chief Inspector Littlejohn mystery Death Drops the Pilot by George Bellairs.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1961 spy novel Brute Madness by Ledru Baker Jr.
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1968 war novel South Pacific Fury by James Macdonnell.
  
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1972 crime novel The Dynamite Freaks by Donald Ryan.
• Joe Kenney revisits operation Steelfish, a 1972 novel in The Aquanauts men's adventure series by Ken Stanton a.k.a. Manning Lee Stokes.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1995 crime fiction collection Betrayals by Charles Palliser.
  

 

Crowdfunding: 

• The family of the late urban fantasy author Anton Strout needs some help.

 

Research:

• Kim Green shares the best books, blogs and podcasts about and by real private investigators. 
• Michael Cannell tells the story of Depression era gangster Irving "Gangi" Cohen, who escaped the mob and found a new career as a bit part actor in Hollywood. 
• Tori Telfer takes a look at Mexican serial killer Juana Barraza.
  
• Dean Jobb remembers the 19th century Canadian thief, burglar, con man and escape artist Henry More Smith.
  
• Olivia Rutigliano reports how a feud between the actors Charles Macready and Edwin Forrest led to a massive riot in New York City in 1849 that left more than twenty people dead.

 
Free online fiction:

• "Rotten Little Town: A Oral History (Abridged)" by Adam-Troy Castro in Nightmare Magazine.  
• "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" by Jeff Esterholm in Beat to a Pulp. 
• "Two in the Streets" by Bobby Mathews in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Ground Beef" by Amanda Silverman Kosior in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Philippine Farewell" by Devin Misko in Shotgun Honey. 
• "The Myth of the Centaur" by E.A. Aymar in Tough.
  
• "The Roman Heir" by Zara Altair in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
• "Manic" by Marc McConville in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "The Company I Keep" by Judge Santiago Burdon in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Sob Sisters" by Kris Nelscott.
• "Driving Past the Olivier House" by Frederick Shiels in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for season 2 of Rebecka Martinsson.
  
• Watch a trailer for Outside the Wire.