Crime Fiction Links of the Week for March 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 Your Honor, the 2021 Golden Globes, tributes to Margaret Maron and Paul D. Marks and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Luanne Rice shares five great thrillers set in wild places.
• Paul French discusses the crime fiction of Trinidad and Tobago.
• Luke Poling digs into the roots of Boston noir. 
• Alexandra Andrews traces the lengthy literary history of doppelgangers and imposters.
  
• Deanna Raybourn shares six novels based on real life historical scandals. 
  
• Rick Pullen profiles Tom Straw, the author behind the Richard Castle novels.
• Heather Martin takes a look at Lee Child's early days as a thriller writer and the letters to the editor he wrote to the New York Times.
• Nicole Glover talks about writing a mystery without involving the police. 
• Kali Wallace explains why isolation is so important for thrillers. 
• Fraser Massey takes a look at crime fiction anthologies inspired by music albums.
  
• Ben Terrall, son of 1970s thriller author Robert Terrall, remembers his father. 
• Jan Edwards shares a cover reveal for The Return of Sherlock Holmes: Further Extraordinary Tales of the Famous Sleuth, edited by Maxim Jakubowski.
• Leyland Cecco reports that the Canadian intelligence agency CSIS used a quote by John Le Carré in a recruiting ad - apparently unaware that the quote in question refers to a double agent.
• Alison Flood reports about Songs for Murdered Sisters, a song cycle written by Margaret Atwood, Joshua Hopkins and composer Jake Heggie.
  
• Martin Edwards remembers the late Margaret Maron.
• Mystery writer Paul D. Marks has died.
• J. Kingston Pierce remembers Paul D. Marks.
  

 

Film and TV:

• Rebecca Nicholson calls series 2 of McDonald and Dodds far from dark and all the better for it.
  
• Mike D'Angelo calls Keep an Eye Out an anything goes cop comedy.
  
• Leslie Felperin calls the memory loss heist movie Backtrace forgettable.
• Leslie Felperin calls Last Moment of Clarity a doubly troubled neo-noir movie.
  
• Phil Hoad calls Body Brokers a cynical look at addiction and the US healthcare system. 
• Phil Hoad calls Lucky a timeloop home invasion thriller that makes a statement about society's attitude towards women. 
• Lucy Mangan calls The Terror an icy horror chiller. 
  
• James Donaghy shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Unforgotten. 
• Roxana Hadadi shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Clarice.
  
• Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Snowpiercer. 
  
• Peter Bradshaw shares his thoughts on Drift Away. 
• Danette Chavez calls Murder Among the Mormons an illuminating true crime documentary.
  
• Roxana Hadadi declares that the documentary Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words treats the late US Supreme Court Justice like a superheroine. 
• Hadley Freeman calls the documentary Allen vs. Farrow pure propaganda. 
• Julia Webster Ayuso explains why so many Spanish crime dramas hail from Galicia.
• Olivia Rutigliano takes a look at the lovely homes owned by fictional female spies in movies and TV shows.
  
• Tim Lewis interviews Lakeith Stanfield, star of Sorry to Bother You, Get Out! and Knives Out. 
  
• Marah Eakin interviews Casey Haver and Harriet Warner, producer and creator of Tell Me All Your Secrets. 
• Marah Eakin interviews Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Miss Lawrence, two of the stars of The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
• Elle Hunt interviews Judy Sheindlin, star and presiding judge of Judge Judy. 
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1941 crime movie The Ghost Train.
  
• The Columbophile revisits the 1971 Columbo pilot episode "Ransom for a Dead Man" for its 50th anniversary. 
• Mike D'Angelo revisits the 1986 animated movie The Great Mouse Detective.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1988 Sherlock Holmes comedy Without a Clue.
  
• Steve Vertlieb remembers Jack Klugman, star of Quincy. 
  

 

Comments on Your Honor:

• Lucy Mangan calls Your Honor perfectly fine and praises the performance of Bryan Cranston, but feels that it does not measure up to Breaking Bad.
• Toby Moses interviews Peter Moffat, showrunner of Your Honor.

 

Awards: 

• The finalists for the 2021 Los Angeles Times Mystery/Thriller Prize and the other Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have been announced.  
• The winners of the 2021 Berlin Film Festival have been announced.
  
• The finalists for the 68th annuval Golden Reel Awards have been announced with some love for genre movies.
  
• The 2021 Golden Globes have been awarded with no love for genre films. 
• Stuart Heritage wonders whether the Golden Globe judges watch anything other than a few popular Netflix shows.
  
• Benjamin Lee reports about a controversy involving the Golden Globes. 

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Tammy Euliano talks about writing and researching her latest crime novel. 
• Trisha Sakhlecha talks about the inspiration for her latest thriller. 
• Caroline Green talks about the inspiration for her latest thriller.
  
• Lisa Renee Jones explains how to build an enthralling thriller.  
  
• Martin Edwards explains that even if two books are based on the same basic premise or idea, the result is usually very different, because every writer approaches the basic idea differently. 
• Chris Whitaker explains that working at the library helped him to finish his novel. 
  
• Cody Delistraty wonders whether it's time to get rid of the celebrity book blurb. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch explains how the book business has changed in 2020 and 2021. 
• Elizabeth A. Harris is worried about the impact of the merger between Penguin Random House and Simon and Schuster. 
• Alison Flood reports that Bookshop.org has earned 1 million GBP for independent bookstores in the UK in four months. 
• Carz Nelson offers an update on the state of the Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's SFF and crime fiction specialty bookstores, which were burned down during the riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• Aja Romano reports about a problem with the tagging system of the fanfiction site AO3 being abused.
  

 

Interviews:

• E.B. Davis interviews Maria DiRico a.k.a. Ellen Byron.
  
• Robert Justice interviews Bianca Sloane.
• Alan Petersen interviews Mark Greaney.
• Queer Writers of Crime interview Eliza Lentzki.
• Cressida Leyshon interviews Jonathan Lethem. 
• Craig Sisterson interviews Mercedes Rosende. 
• John Wisniewski interviews Bill Baber.
  

Reviews:

• Lesa Holstine reviews The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths.
• Blue Book Balloon reviews The Cut by Chris Brookmyre. 
• Garrick Webster reviews Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison.
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay. 
• Sonja van der Westhuizen reviews Facets of Death by Michael Stanley. 
• BOLO Books reviews Who Is Maud Dixon? by Alexandra Andrews. 
• Lis Carey reviews The Other Daughter by Lisa Gardner.
• Ray Palen reviews Missing and Endangered by J.A. Jance.
  
• Raven Crime Reads reviews The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguín, translated by Miranda France. 
• Russell James reviews The Foreign Girls by Sergio Olguín, translated by Miranda France. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Family Friend by C.C. MacDonald. 
  
• John Parker reviews The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Angelino Heights by Adam Bregman.
  
• Sarah Hughes reviews The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. 
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews To the Dark by Chris Nickson.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Smoke Screen by Jörn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger, translated by Megan Turney. 
• Ray Palen reviews The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott.
  
• Russell James reviews The Measure of Time by Gianrico Carlofiglio, translated by Howard Curtis. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Legacy of Death by Judith Cutler.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Murder in Galway by Carlene O'Connor. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews A Game of Cones by Abby Collette. 
• Janet Webb reviews Cold Reading Murder by R.J. Lee.
  
• Liz Bourke and Adrienne Martini reviews Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells.
• Bill Capossere reviews The Conductors by Nicole Glover. 
  
• Alvaro Zinos-Amaro reviews Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer, edited by Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans.

 

Classics reviews:

• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1930 mystery Hercules Esq. by Gwyn Evans. 
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1931 mystery The Murders at Hillside by Virginia Rath.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1939 Black Bat adventure Brand of the Black Bat by G. Wayman Jones a.k.a. Norman Danberg.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1943 mystery Murder's a Swine a.k.a. The Grinning Pig by Nap Lombard a.k.a. Gordon Neil Stewart and Pamela Hansford Johnson.
• Sara Paretsky revisits the 1946 noir novel Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1950 noir novel Walk the Evil Street by David Wade a.k.a. Norman Danberg.
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1951 suspense novel Murder Is My Mistress by Harry Whittington.
• Paperback Warrior revisits Dead in Bed, a 1959 Johnny Aloha hardboiled mystery by Day Keene a.k.a. Gunnar Hjertstedt
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1964 Mark Preston detective novel This'll Kill You by Peter Chambers.
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1977 men's adventure novel The Last Great Death Stunt by Clark Howard.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1977 psychological thriller novel A Man Without Friends by Miles Tripp.
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Ayo Onatade shares the program of the virtual Hull Noir Festival. 
• Ayo Onatade also reports about the virtual Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival. 
• Garrick Webster reports about the virtual Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival.
  
• Sandra Mangan reports that the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival will take place as a physical event in Harragate, Yorkshire, in July. 
• Catherine Shoard reports that Liam Neeson will personally appear to greet viewers of his new thriller The Marksman in a cinema in New York City.
• Michael Jackman reports about the RoboCop statue that will be set up in Detroit, Michigan, eventually.
  

 

Research:

• Jim Cornelius reports that the remains of some crewmembers including the captain have been found in the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah, which sank off Cape Cod in 1717.
• Liza Rodman recalls her meeting with serial killer Tony Costa.
  
• Charles Versaggi recalls what it was like having a mobster for a godfather. 
• Stephanie Kane recounts how the unsolved 1973 murder of her mother-in-law inspired her crime writing career.
  
• Jay Weaver, Nicholas Nehamas, Jim Wyss and Kyra Gurney take a look at the inner workings of the market for illegally mined gold. 
• Terry Gross reports about the crowdsourced investigation platform Bellingcat.  
• The BBC reports that a medieval tunnel system has been discovered by technicians in Tintern, Wales.  
• Loren D. Estleman reporta that Napoleon Bonaparte's life was fit for a thriller.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Still Life" by Lori Rader-Day in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
• "The Good Life" by Richie Narvaez in Tough. 
• "No Wrong, Come Along" by Jason M. Tucker in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Sky Beyond the Branches" by Mike McHone in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Action in the Woods" by Nelson Abraham Murray in Pulp Modern Flash.
  
• "The Shovel" by Alan Orloff in Pulp Modern Flash.
  
• "Crotchrockets" by Anthony Neil Smith in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Trix and Treats" by Marc Olmsted in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Diabolo Ex Machina" by Marko Antic in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Our Lady of the Burning Heart" by Cora Buhlert
• "Crossing the River Styx" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
• "I Should've Known" by Jess Chua in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for Latin Noir.
• Watch a trailer for Cherry. 
• Watch a trailer for Made for Love.