Crime Fiction Links of the Week for February 6, 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 crime novels and mysteries of 2020, Big Sky, Judas and the Black Messiah, a shocking modern slavery plot on the British soap opera The Archers, the 2021 Golden Globe nominations, tributes to Christopher Plummer and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares eleven crime novels to read this February.
  
• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Crime Reads shares twenty-five upcoming mysteries, crime novels and thrillers by black authors. 
• Michael Kaufman discusses the future of police procedurals.
  
• Sarah Pearse shares her favourite wintery mysteries and thrillers.
  
• Courtney Summers shares four thrillers that emotionally destroyed her.
• Joanna Schaffhausen shares her ten favourite dynamic duos in crime fiction. 
• Paul Vidich shares his favourite imposters and con artists in crime and spy fiction.
• John Rentoul shares the top ten hobbies of fictional detectives. 
• Alison Wisdom shares seven thriller about communal living.
  
• Sebastian Fitzek declares that psychological thrillers offer a glimpse into the abyss.
  
• Jonathan Kellerman wonders why crime fiction has such a hard time portraying psychiatrists.
• Alison Flood reports about the literary afterlife of Sherlock Holmes, the many modern iterations of the character and the litigatious Arthur Conan Doyle estate. 
  
• Daneet Steffens profiles Jane Harper.
  
• Crossexamining Crime ranks the mysteries of Christopher St. John Sprigg. 
• Dwyer Murphy attempts to visits John D. MacDonald's home in Florida only to find it gone.
• Abigail Santamaria reports about the correspondence between SFF write Madeleine L'Engle and Ahmad Rahman, an imprisoned member of the Black Panther Party. 
• V.M. Burns explains why escapist fiction is important. 
  
• Sarah Hughes shares what sensationalist blockbuster novels aimed at women taught her about life and love.  
• Martin Edwards shares his appreciation for the work of UK crime fiction cover artist Reginald Heade. 
  

 

Best of 2020:

• Dan Wagner shares his favourite crime novels of 2020. 
• Andrew Gulli shares his twelve favourite mystery novels of 2020.
• The American Library Association has announces its list of the best graphic novels for adults 2020. 

 

Film and TV:

• Olivia Rutigliano ranks the 45 best prison escape movies.
  
• Rebecca Nicholson calls Bulletproof: South Africa a triumph of popcorn worthy action.
  
• Cath Clarke declares that the greatest mystery in the hardboiled thriller Eye for an Eye is where the plot is. 
  
• Lucy Mangan isn't quite sure whether The Drowning is a drama about grief or a shocking mystery. 
• Leslie Felperin calls The Recce an underwhelming war movie.
  
• Benjamin Lee calls Mass an excruciating drama about the aftermath of a school shooting.
  
• James Donaghy shares his thoughts about the series finale of the French crime drama Spiral. 
• Roxana Hadadi shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Walker.
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Your Honor. 
• Craig D. Lindsey praises the 1972 blaxploitation movie Trouble Man. 
• Vikram Murthi revisits the 1972 blaxploitation movie Top of the Heap. 
  
• Jesse Hassenger revisits the 1994 thriller Surviving the Game.
• Vince Keenan reports about Orson Welles' planned adaptation of Nicholas Blake's 1939 thriller The Smiler with the Knife which was never made.
• Chris McGinley profiles Zoe Lund, screenwriter of Bad Lieutenant.
• Ben Child wonders whether James Gunn can save Suicide Squad.
• Jon Porter reports that the many delays of the James Bond movie No Time to Die are also playing havoc with the product placement, since many of the products featured are now outdated. 

 

Tributes to Christopher Plummer:

• Christopher Plummer, star of The Sound of Music, Knives Out, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Sherlock Holmes, Starcrash and many others, has died aged 91.
• Peter Bradshaw remembers Christopher Plummer.
• Germain Lussier remembers Christopher Plummer.
  

 

Comments on Big Sky: 

• Allison Shoemaker shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Big Sky. 
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Big Sky.
  
• Nellie Andreeva reports that several high profile guest stars will be appearing in Big Sky.
  

 

Comments on the modern slavery plot in The Archers: 

• Amelia Gentleman reports about a shocking modern slavery storyline in the British soap opera The Archers and wonders how realistic it is. 
  
• Charlotte Higgins also weighs in on the slavery plotline in The Archers.
  

 

Comments on Judas and the Black Messiah: 

• Peter Bradshaw calls Judas and the Black Messiah an electric drama about murdered activist Fred Hampton.  
• Katie Rife calls Judas and the Black Messiah electrifying and praises the performances of the cast.

Awards: 

• The shortlist for the 2021 Romantic Novel Awards has been announced.  
• The winners of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medals have been announced. 
  
• The finalists for the 2021 Golden Globes have been announced with little love for crime and thriller film and TV.  
• Peter Bradshaw is pleased by Golden Globe nominations for boring but thoughtful works. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw finds plenty to criticise about the Golden Globe nominations.  
• Deborah Copaken believes that the rape drama I May Destroy You was snubbed at the Golden Globes.
  
• The finalists for the 2021 Screen Actors Guild Awards have been announced with some love for crime movies and TV.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Pierre E. Pettinger Jr. explains that it's never too late to start writing.
  
• Anna Catalano points out that writers sill break out after thirty or any other arbitrary age. 
• Tracy Townsend talks about fan fiction and character development.
• Keith R.A. DeCandido talks about writing and researching his latest novel Animal.
  
• Mike Glyer reports that the Authors Guild, Open Markets Institute, Horror Writers Association, National Writers Union, Novelists Inc., Romance Writers Association, Sisters in Crime and Western Writers of America have urged the antitrust division of the US department of justice not to approve the Bertelsmann Group's purchase of Simon and Schuster, since Bertelsmann already owns Penguin Random House. 
• Alison Flood reports that the magazine Poetry is facing an outcry after publishing a poem by a convicted sex offender. 
• Alison Flood reports that UK bookstore chain Waterstone's will not pay its furloughed staff minimum wage, because that would not be "prudent".  
• Jim Milliot reports that booksales per unit according to BookScan have hit a record high in 2020.
  
• Christopher Little, literary agent of J.K. Rowling, had died aged 79.
  

 

Interviews:

• Alan Petersen interviews Gregg Hurwitz.
• Marshal Zeringue interviewsw Joanna Schaffhausen.
  
• Crime by the Book interviews Eva García Sáenz. 
• Ayo Onatade interviews David Fennell. 
• Barbara Peters interviews Frederick Weisel.
  
• Queer Writers of Crime interview Gregory Ashe and C.S. Poe.
• Shelf Awareness interviews John Hart.
  

Reviews:

• Janet Webb reviews A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz.
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Slough House by Mick Herron.
• Gabino Iglesias reviews Girl A by Abigail Dean.
  
• Raven Crime Reads reviews The Devil by Nadia Dalbuono.
• John Parker reviews Out For Blood by Deborah Masson. 
• Sandra Mangan reviews An Eye for an Eye by Carol Wyer.
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Silenced Women by Frederick Weisel. 
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Repentance by Eloísa Díaz. 
• Ray Palen reviews Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling.
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Project by Courtney Summers.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Project by Courtney Summers.
• Lesa Holstine reviews Best Laid Plans by Gwen Florio.
• Adam Colclough reviews The Treadstone Exile by Joshua Hood.
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F. Ross. 
• BOLO Books reviews Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. 
• Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett reviews How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones.
• For Winter Nights reviews The Two Lost Mountains by Matthew Reilly.
• Hephzibah Anderson reviews A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion. 
• Janet Webb reviews The Mitford Trial by Jessica Fellowes.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Killer Content by Olivia Blacke. 
  
• Janet Webb reviews Death Comes to the Rectory by Catherine Lloyd. 
• Janet Webb reviews A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wesley Wilson.
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley and tries a recipe from the book. 
• Kelly Lasiter reviews Available Dark by Elizabeth Hand. 
  
• Amy Goldschlager reviews Last Smile in Thunder City by Luke Arnold.   
• Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere review The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton.  
• Stephen Thornley reviews Red Corona by Tim Glister.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Robert B. Parker's Someone To Watch Over Me by Ace Atkins.

 

Classics reviews:

• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1923 Race Williams hardboiled crime tales Knights of the Open Plain by Carroll John Daly.
  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1927 Lord Peter Wimsey mystery Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayers.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1934 mystery The Perfect Alibi by Christopher St. John Sprigg. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1934 mystery Candidate for Lilies by Roger East.
• Steven Nester revisits the 1946 thriller The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing.
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1949 mystery She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1953 crime novel Masquerade into Madness by Russell Meservey.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1957 mystery Death at One Blow by Henrietta Hamilton.
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1963 adventure novel Jamie by Jack Bennett.
• Bitter Tea and Mystery revisits the 1970 crime story "A Nice Place to Stay" by Nedra Tyre.
  
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1977 thriller The Mercenary by Joseph Freytag. 
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1978 historical mystery Aristotle Detective by Margaret Doody.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1982 Able Team men's adventure novel The Hostaged Island by Don Pendleton and Dick Stivers.
  
• The Por Por Books Blog revisits the 1987 science fiction crime novel The Penal Colony by Richard Herley.
• Michael Ledwidge revisits the 1987 horror thriller Misery by Stephen King. 
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Ayo Onatade reports thaat the 2021 Hull Noir crime fiction festival will be a virtual one day event. 
• Ayo Onatade shares a call for papers for the conference Fictional Crimes/Factual Crimes. European crime fiction and media narratives of crime in Paris, France.
• A.A. Dowd reports about the virtual 2021 Sundance Festival.  
• Katie Rife and A.A. Dowd discuss the virtual 2021 Sundance Festival.

 

Research:

• Ellen McGarrahan reports how watching the botched 1990 execution of Jesse Tafero in Florida changed the course of her life. 
• Tod Goldberg recalls growing up surrounded by several active serial killers and other high profile crimes in California in the 1970s.
  
• Jeff Testerman and Daniel M. Freed report about a case of multiple identity thefts and frauds that kept the USA occupied for fifteen years. 
• Tori Telfer profiles Jennifer Mee, US talkshow sensation turned convicted murderess.
• Historical mystery writer Alyssa Maxwell shares her love for vintage English tea sets.
• Kevin D. Murray reports about a particularly stupid would-be peeping Tom in Stafford, Virginia.
• Associated Press reports that private investigator Jack Palladino, who was involved in several high profile cases, was seriously injured in an attack.
• Cora Buhlert reports about the Lufthansa flight 005 crash in 1966.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Federal Offense" by N.J. Lucas in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Yes Man" by Blake Johnson in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Any Deadly Thing" by Emily Bay Moore in All Due Respect.
  
• "The Neighborly Thing" by Margaret Garcia in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Homecoming" by Maria Wickens in Mystery Tribune.
• "The Urn" by Eureka Vaughn in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "The Bucket List" by Ang Pompano in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
• "Pissing Contest" by April Kelly in Tough.
  
• "Murder, Barbies and Videotape" by Kristin Garth in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Shattered Delusions" by John Patrick Robbins in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "The Only Sounds Left" by B.F. Jones in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Five Lips Kissing Back" by B. Frederick Foley in The Five-Two. 
  
• "A Valentine for the Silencer" by Cora Buhlert.
  

 

Odds and ends:

• Take a classic mystery quiz at Crossexamining Crime.