Crime Fiction Links of the Week for August 21, 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 Deceit, Annika, Sweet Girl, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence  and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Laura Wilson shares a round-up of the best recent crime novels and thrillers.
  
• Crime Reads shares ten new mysteries, crime novels and thrillers coming out this week. 
• Lisa Levy shares five psychological thrillers to read this August. 
• Molly Odintz shares the best international crime novels for August.
  
• Silvia Moreno-Garcia shares the seven best noir novels of the 1960s and 1970s. 
• Aya de Leon, Lauren Wilkinson and Rosalie Knecht discuss the evolution of spy fiction. 
• Hannah Dennison shares her favourite crime novels set in Hollywood. 
• Jennifer Hawkins lists cozy mysteries featuring great animal sidekicks.
  
• Lesley Kara shares six crime novels about settling old scores.
  
• Catherine Ryan Howard shares crime novels about romances gone wrong. 
• Megan Collins shares eight thrillers featuring dysfunctional families.
  
• Thriller writer Zoje Stage shares an ode to the terror, uncertainty and adventure of the wilderness. 
• Matt Bell shares eight science fiction and fantasy heist novels. 
  
• Jonah Lehrer reports that a love of investigations and mysteries is hardwired into humans and that Edgar Allan Poe was the first to trigger it with The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 
• Molly Templeton talks about comfort reads. 
  
• Jonathan Santlofer explains how he came to write crime fiction after a career as an artist. 
  
• Thomas Kies talks about the background of his Geneva Chase mystery series.
  
• Norwegian crime writer Jo Nesbø shares his memories of a summer spent alone in Oslo in the 1960s.

 

Film and TV:

• Foz Meadows watches Jungle Cruise, so you don't have to, and finds it suffused with nostalgia. 
• Mike D'Angelo calls Flag Day a dysfunctional family/crime drama. 
• Jesse Hassenger calls The Protégé a throwback action thriller with a great cast.
  
• Steve Rose calls Flatland a South African thriller that veers boldly between humorous and harrowing. 
• Mike McCahill calls BellBottom a corwdpleasing super spy film from India.
  
• Phil Hoad calls the horror thriller Eye Without a Face an odd mix of slasher film and slacker comedy.   
• Cath Clarke calls Underground a French-Canadian disaster film that focusses more on human drama than action.
  
• Ellen E. Jones calls Deed of Death an enthusiastic martial arts film from Malaysia.
  
• Bob Mayer declares that Pig is not John Wick meets a pig, it's a movie about grief. 
• Vikram Murthi shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
  
• Phuong Le calls Sabaya an extraordinary documentary about the struggle to free women kidnapped by ISIS. 
• Johnny Shaw lists ten crime films about unauthorised immigrants. 
• Jonathan Santlofer shares the best movies, TV shows and documentaries about art theft and forgery. 
  
• William Hughes talks about an alternate ending to Black Widow.   
• Jason Shawhan revisits the 1992 science fiction noir film Split Second.  
• A.A. Dowd revisits the 2003 science fiction noir film Code 46. 
  
• Germain Lussier revisits the 2006 action movie Snakes on a Plane. 
• Simran Hans lists movie remakes she believes outshine the original.
  
• Richard Orange reports that people working in the Danish film and TV industry are under pressure, because the demand for Danish film and TV is bigger than what a small industry can supply. 
• Sonny Chiba, star of Kill Bill, The Street Fighter, Bullet Train and many others, has died aged 82.
  

 

Comments on Deceit:

• Lucy Mangan declares that the true crime drama Deceit proves the ethics of an undercover police operation, which happened to entrap the wrong person.
• Stuart Jeffries interviews Sion Daniel Young, who plays a man wrongfully accused of murder in the true crime drama Deceit.  
• Watch a trailer for Deceit.
  

 

Comments on Annika:

• Stuart Jeffries calls Annika a pseudo Nordic Noir crime drama that will reel you in. 
• Paul Hirons calls Annika a bit lightweight, but well worth watching. 
• J. Kingston Pierce recommends the TV shows Annika and Shadowplay. 
  

 

Comments on Sweet Girl:

• Benjamin Lee calls Sweet Girl a conventional conspiracy thriller. 
• Craig D. Lindsey calls Sweet Girl a throwback action thriller.
  

 

Comments on The Suicide Squad:

• Al Horner interviews James Gunn, director of The Suicide Squad.
  
• Matt Schimkovitz declares that the punk song playing over the opening credits of The Suicide Squad is a mission statement.
• Tatiana Tenreyro reports that Superman was almost the main villain in The Suicide Squad.
  

 

Comments on Reminiscence:

• A.A. Dowd calls Reminiscence an ambitious science fiction noir film. 
• Germain Lussier calls Reminiscence a science fiction thriller with more ambition than coherence.
  
• Benjamin Lee calls Reminiscence an Inception rip-off that's not worth remembering. 
• Lauren Huff interviews Lisa Joy and Hugh Jackman, director and star of Reminiscence. 

 

Awards: 

• The shortlist for the 2021 Crime Cologne Award has been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2021 Bulwer-Lytton Contest have been announced. 

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Crime Time FM interviews several publishing professionals about the future of the crime genre.
• Donal Ryan shares advice for writing a great short story. 
• Art Taylor talks about writing short stories in a two part post.
  
• Bracken MacLeod explains why protagonists should be flawed. 
• The Writer asks several authors when writers should return to abandoned work.
  
• Jennifer Lyn Parsons explains how she makes her daily wordcount quota. 
• Matthew Ward shares some tips for writing trilogies. 
• Ryan G. Van Cleave shares four ways to instantly tighten your writing.
  
• Scott Oden declares that self-publishing is just as valid as traditional publishing. 
• Mike Glyer reports that the East and West Coast branches of the Writers Guild of America have joined the #DisneyMustPay task force. 
  
• Elizabeth A. Harris and Alexandra Altman report that the Hachette Publishing Group will purchase the independent publisher Workman.
  
• Ed Nawotka reports that censorship is on the rise worldwide. 
• Andrew Albanese shares an update on the copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive. 
• Sophie Haigney reports that ARCs, which are not supposed to be for sale, are increasingly being put up for sale.
  
• Reeves Wiedeman reports about a mysterious thief who has been stealing unpublished manuscripts for years.

 

Interviews:

• David Masciotra interviews James Lee Burke. 
• Alan Petersen interviews Isabella Maldonado. 
• Ayo Onatade interviews Silvia Moreno-Garcia. 
  
• J.B. Stevens interviews Megan Collins.
• Brad Shreve interviews John Copenhaver.
• John A. Hoda interviews J.C. Fields.
• Debbi Mack interviews Saralyn Richards.
• The Cozy Ink Podcast interviews Tara Lush.
• Molly Odintz interviews Sascha Rothchild.
• Alex Segura interviews Pornsak Pichetshote.
• Crossexamining Crime interviews Caroline Crampton.
  

Reviews:

• Laura Miller reviews Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
  
• Carole Tyrell reviews I Shot the Devil by Ruth McIver. 
• For Winter Nights reviews The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell.
  
• Adam Colclough reviews Out of Sight by Paul Gitsham.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Gone by Morning by Michele Weinstat Miller. 
• BOLO Books reviews Gone for Good by Joanna Schaffhausen. 
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews The Nameless Ones by John Connolly. 
• Crime by the Book reviews Victim Without a Face by Stefan Ahnhem. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Have You Seen Me? by Alexandrea Weis.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle.
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Dog Rose Dirt by Jen Williams. 
• Janet Webb reviews A Different Dawn by Isabella Maldonado. 
• John Valeri reviews Hiding Place by Meghan Holloway. 
• Sandra Mangan reviews The Heights by Louise Candlish.
  
• Crime by the Book reviews 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard. 
• Paula Guran reviews Queen of the Cicadas by V. Castro. 
  
• For Winter Nights reviews The Wolf Mile by C.F. Barrington. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger. 
• Bitter Tea and Mystery reviews Lockdown by Peter May.
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Family Plot by Megan Collins.
  
• For Winter Nights reviews A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz. 
• Rafe McGregor reviews A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz. 
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books review Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang.
  
• Beth Kanell reviews The Bitter Taste of Murder by Camilla Trinchieri. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Murder in a Teacup by Vicki Delany and tries a recipe from the book. 
• Janet Webb reviews Murder Most Fowl by Donna Andrews.
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews the hardboiled mystery comic The Amulet of Thar’ishdom by Asa Wheatley and Kat Willott.
• Crossexamining Crime reviews Sherlock in the Seventies: A Wild Decade of Sherlock Holmes Films by Derham Groves.
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1919 Zorro adventure novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley. 
  
• Lesa Holstine revisits the 1923 mystery collection Jim Hanvey, Detective by Octavus Roy Cohen.
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1938 mystery The Death Syndicate by Judson P. Philips.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1949 mystery Murder at Drake's Anchorage by E. Lee Waddell. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1956 adventure novel Hold Back the Sun by John Vail a.k.a. Robert Carse.
• James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1966 science fiction mystery Sibyl Sue Blue by Rosel George Brown. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1967 gothic novel Castlecliffe by Sandra Shulman.  
• Jonathan Freedland revisits the 1969 mafia novel The Godfather by Mario Puzo.
  
• Joe Kenney revisits Time Clock of Death, a 1970 novel in the Nick Carter Killmaster men's adventure series by George Snyder. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1973 thriller The Plot Against Roger Rider by Julian Symons.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1983 horror thriller Pranks.  
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1999 crime fiction collection A Good Story and Other Stories and the 2004 heist collection Thieves' Dozen by Donald E. Westlake.
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Ayo Onatade reports that Bloody Scotland in Stirling, Scotland, has revealed the program for its 2021 hybrid festival.

 

Crowdfunding: 

• SFF writer and Hugo winner Laura J. Mixon and her husband Steven Gould need some help with medical bills.
  
• Louise Perenne, widow of the late game designer Steve Perrin, needs some help with medical and care expenses.
• Nicole Audrey Spector reports that makers of tabletop games are increasingly turning to crowdfunding to finance new games.
  

 

Research:

• Erin Kinsley explains why DNA testing can be Pandora's box.
  
• Charlie English discusses the Nazis' war on so-called "degenerate" art, i.e. modern art.

Free online fiction:

• "The Guy Before the Guy" by Beau Johnson in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Exterminator" by Bruce Harris in Guilty. 
• "All These Dead Hamlets" by David Rachels in Guilty. 
  
• "The Hour of the Bat" by M.E. Proctor in Beat to a Pulp.
  
• "Four Slugs" by C.A. Rowland in Yellow Mama.
  
• "Deep" by Jon Park in Yellow Mama. 
• "Note to Self" by Peter W.J. Haynes in Yellow Mama.
  
• "Something Terrible Has Happened" by Julie McClement in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "The Destruction of a Goddess" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
  

 Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for Agatha Christies Hjerson.
  

 Odd and ends:

• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is running a trivia contest for its 80th anniversary.