Crime Fiction Links of the Week for February 13, 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, Unforgotten, the new Equalizer, Judas and the Black Messiah, Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Sarah Weinman shares the best recent crime novels and thrillers.
  
• Crime Reads shares ten new crime books coming out this week. 
• Lisa Levy shares five psychological thrillers to read this February.
  
• Marc Chacksfield shares his thirty favourite literary detectives of all time.
  
• Paul French talks about crime fiction set in Malta. 
• Suzanne Redfearn shares six novel about women on the run.
  
• Thriller author Bryan Reardon reports how his neighbours thought they recognised themselves in his novels. 
• Ben McPherson recounts how the 2011 terror attack on the island of Utøya, Norway, influenced his writing.
• Allison Epstein discusses how many famous writers were also criminals. 
• Sylvain Neuvel talks about ambiguous characters and downright villains. 
  
• Katie Lowe talks about the rise of the digital gothic.  
• Rick Pullen profiles Walter Mosley.
• Valerie Stivers cook a Sicilian meal inspired by Andrea Camillieri's Inspector Montalbano novels.
  
• Steve Powell takes a look at the music that inspired James Ellroy.
  
• Deuce Richardson shares his appreciation for the works of cover artist Robert McGinnis.  
• George Easter shares some great vintage "girl with gun" covers. 
• Francis M. Nevins remembers the late John Lutz.
  

 

Film and TV:

• Dwyer Murphy shares the best international crime dramas and thrillers to watch.
  
• Olivia Rutigliano shares her favourite movies and TV shows about cool women solving mysteries. 
• Zach Vasquez shares ten crime movies about destructive romances.
  
• Karen Han calls Lupin an early frontrunner as one of the best new shows of 2021.
  
• Rebecca Nicholson calls Deliver Us a pleasantly twisty Danish noir drama.
  
• Lucy Mangan calls ZeroZeroZero a bleak drug trafficking drama. 
• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky declares that The Mauritanian transforms a memoir about unlawful detention into just another shouty courtroom drama.  
• Phil Hoad calls Broil a stylish but overstuffed fantasy thriller. 
  
• Rebecca Nicholson calls The Investigation a new kind of true crime drama. 
• Brigid Delaney calls the documentary The Witch of King's Cross a portrait of a fascinating woman. 
  
• Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Snowpiercer. 
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Your Honor. 
• Garrick Webster looks ahead at the Finnish crime drama Man in Room 301.
  
• David Walsh revisits the 1941 noir classic The Maltese Falcon. 
• Dan Sheehan revisits the 1981 erotic thriller Body Heat.
  
• Milan Terlunnen revisits the 1985 mystery movie Clue. 
• Olivia Rutigliano revisits the 1985 romantic mystery TV series Moonlighting.
  
• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky revisits the 1992 crime film Deep Cover.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 2001 crime drama Mind Games.
  
• Jenny Colgan and her kids revisits the 2007 TV show Lost.  
  
• Lou Armagno celebrates the 92nd birthday of actor James Hong, who played Charlie Chan's No. 1 son among many others.
• Steve Vertlieb celebrates the 89th birthday of legendary film composer John Williams. 
  
• Stuart Heritage remarks that since most movies come out on streaming services these days due to the pandemic, B-movies suddenly compete on the same playing field as A-list features.
• Scott Roxborough reports about the coming out of 185 German actors as LGBTQ. 
• Ryan Schwartz reports that the cop sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine will end after season 8. 
• Matt Webb Mitovich reports that NCIS killed off yet another female character to make a point that covid can be deadly. 
  
• Actor Mike Henry, who appeared in Tarzan, Smokey and the Bandit and Soylent Green among others, has died aged 84. 
• Producer and screenwriter Cy Chermak who worked on CHiPs, Ironside, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Star Trek: The Next Generation among many others, has died aged 91.

 

Comments on Unforgotten:

• Eleanor Bley Griffith shares some news about series 4 of Unforgotten.
• Flora Carr interviews Nicola Walker, star of Unforgotten.

 

Comments on the new Equalizer:

• Stephen Robinson shares his thoughts on the latest take on Equalizer.  
• Russell Smith finds that the new Equalizer shows a lot of promise.

 

Comments on Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel: 

• Ellen E. Jones calls the true crime documentary Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel desperately sad rather than spooky.  
• Katie Rife declares that Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel chases thrills, but finds only tragedy.

Comments on Judah and the Black Messiah: 

• Marah Eakin interviews Shaka King, director of Judah and the Black Messiah.
• Marah Eakin interviews Dominique Fishback, one of the stars of Judas and the Black Messiah. 
  

 

Awards: 

• Sisters in Crime has launched the Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers and applications are open now.
• The 2021 McIlvanney Prize is open for submissions.
  
• The nominations for the 26th Annual Critics' Choice Awards have been announced with some love for crime movies. 
• The nominations for the 2020 International Film Music Critics Association Awards have been announced with some love for genre film and TV.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Lou J. Berger shares some writing advice.
• Kellie Doherty explains how to write flash fiction.
  
• Rebecca Sacks explains how she keeps track of her large cast of characters with index cards, string and clothes pins. 
• Tiffany Yates Martin talks about point of view.
  
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch declares that writers should write about what moves them, including difficult topics.
  
• Kameron Hurley shares how to survive a decade in publishing.
• Katie Grant reports that dozens of new independent book shops opened in the UK during the pandemic.
  

 

Interviews:

• Alan Petersen interviews Walter Mosley.
  
• Publishers Weekly interviews Max Allan Collins. 
• Suspense Magazine interviews Victoria Thompson.
  
• Robert Justice interviews E.A. Aymar a.k.a. E.A. Barres. 
• Shayne Whaley interviews Mick Herron.
  
• Mystery Tribune interviews Paul Vidich.
• Oyinkan Braithwaite interviews Femi Kayode.
• Debbi Mack interviews James H. Roby.
• Nancie Clare interviews Daniel Pyne.
• Queer Writers of Crime interview Edwin Hill.
• Garrick Webster interviews Eloísa Díaz.
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Jeri Westerson.
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Carol Wyer.
  

Reviews:

• Lesa Holstine reviews A Simple Murder by Linda Castillo. 
• Kirkus reviews Blood Grove by Walter Mosley. 
• Publishers Weekly reviews A Stranger in Town by Kelley Armstrong.
  
• Adam Colclough reviews Breakout by Paul Herron.
• Crime by the Book reviews The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor.
  
• Crime by the Book reviews Shiver by Allie Reynolds. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Last Snow by Stina Jackson. 
• Murder by the Book reviews The Survivors by Jane Harper.
  
• Ray Palen reviews The Unwilling by John Hart. 
• Ray Palen reviews Surrender the Dead by John Burley. 
• Mike Parker reviews Slough House by Mick Herron.
  
• For Winter Nights reviews Savage Road by Chris Hauty.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Low Desert by Tod Goldberg.
  
• Ray Palen reviews The Paradise Affair by Bill Pronzini. 
• Book Reviews & More by Kathy reviews Never Far Away by Michael Koryta.
  
• Mike Parker reviews The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguín, translated by Miranda France. 
• Jim Motavalli reviews Girl A by Abigail Dean. 
• Alan Cranis reviews A Certain Man's Daughter by Timothy J. Lockhart.
  
• John Valeri reviews The Shadow Box by Luanne Rice. 
• Book Reviews & More by Kathy reviews The Power Couple by Alex Berenson.
  
• No More Grumpy Bookseller reviews Danger by Robin Nye.
  
• Sonja van der Westhuizen reviews Sleep Well, My Lady by Kwei Quartey.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Murder My Past by Delia C. Pitts. 
• Sandra Mangan reviews The Art of Death by David Fennell. 
• No More Grumpy Bookseller reviews Death Deserved by Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger 
• Shelf Awareness reviews Before the Ruins by Victoria Gosling. 
• No More Grumpy Bookseller reviews The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse.
  
• Gwen Moffat reviews The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. 
• Ray Palen reviews Spin by Patricia Cornwell. 
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews The Mystery of Henri Pick by David Foenkinos, translated by Sam Taylor.
• Martin Edwards reviews The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves. 
• Rebecca Nesvet reviews A Glimmer of Death by Valerie Wilson Wesley.
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Killer Content by Olivia Blacke. 
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews A Tourist's Guide to Murder by V.M. Burns. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Crime of the Ancient Marinara by Stephanie Cole and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• Melissa Buehner reviews The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. 
• Lauren Elkin reviews Consent by Vanessa Springora. 
• Benjamin Welton reviews American Serial Killers: The Epidemic Years 1950 - 2000 by Peter Vronsky.
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World by Mark Aldridge.
• Alistair Duncan reviews The Curious Book of Sherlock Holmes Characters by Mike Foy. 

 

Classics reviews:

• Robert Weibezahl revisits the 1932 crime novel The Conjure Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher, the first known crime novel written by an African American writer. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1932 mystery Sudden Death by Freeman Wills Crofts.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1935 mystery The Red Widow Murders by Carter Dickson a.k.a. John Dickson Carr. 
  
• L.J. Hurst revisits the 1943 WWII mystery Murder's a Swine a.k.a. The Grinning Pig by Nap Lombard a.k.a. Pamela Hansford Johnson and Neil Stewart.  
• K.A. Laity revisits the 1950 noir novel The Candy Kid by Dorothy B. Hughes.
  
• Lesa Holstine revisits the 1952 police procedural Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1953 crime novel Warrant for a Wanton by Michael Gillian a.k.a. Leslie John Edgley.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1954 noir novel The Big Kiss-Off by Day Keene a.k.a. Gunnar Hjerstedt.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1955 crime novel They All Ran Away by Edward S. Aarons.
• Joe Kenney revisits San Diego Siege, a 1972 novel in The Executioner men's adventure series by Don Pendleton. 
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1975 mystery Let's Talk of Graves, of Worms and Epitaphs by Robert Player a.k.a. Robert Furneaux Jordan. 
• Bitter Tea and Mystery revisits the 1994 historical mystery Murder in the Place of Anubis by Lynda S. Robinson.
  
• Nick Kolakowski revisits the 1999 thriller Hannibal by Thomas Harris and wonders whether the controversial ending wasn't a secret masterpiece.
  

 

Con and event reports:

• The 2021 Suffolk Mystery Authors Festival has gone virtual.
  
• Katie Rife and A.A. Dowd discuss the virtual 2021 Sundance Festival. 
• Caitlin Kelly reports about costumers who specialise in recreating historical fashions.

 

Research:

• Patricia Pearson talks about serial killers in the healthcare industry and why they are so rarely caught.
  
• Peter Vronsky explains how the Great Depression and WWII gave birth to the modern serial killer. 
• Donis Casey talks about organised crime in Hollywood in the 1920s to 1950s and beyond.
  
• Emilya Naymark talks about the brutality and absurdity of the Russian mafia. 
• Sonia Faleiro reports about an epidemic of children going missing in Uttar Pradesh, India. 
• Jack Morse reports that data from a smartphone health tracker app was used as evidence in a murder trial in Alabama.
  
• Susanna Calkins discusses how cryptography was used to encode everyday communications in 17th century London.
  
• C.J. Tudor reports about the burnings of Protestants at the stake in Sussex during the reign of Mary I a.k.a. Bloody Mary.

Free online fiction:

• "Fission" by Timothy Owen Davis in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Remittences" by Pamela Ebel in Shotgun Honey.  
• "Beneath the Black Water" by John Rector in Tough.
  
• "Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels" by Lavie Tidhar in Tor.com. 
  
• "The Man Who Drowned in Champagne" by Edward D. Hoch in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Fiction Podcast. 
• "Pretty Deadly" by Albert Kanach in Mystery Tribune 
• "For the Russians" by J.B. Stevens in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Hands" by Jess Chua in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Sparkles" by Mark McConville in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Suicide with a Gun" by Dan Holt in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Teen Turf War" by Scott Cumming in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Anything Goes" by Tom Barlow in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for Bloodlands.
  
• Watch a trailer for Behind Her Eyes.
• Watch a trailer for The Witch of King's Cross.  
• Watch a trailer for Falcon and the Winter Soldier.