Crime Fiction Links of the Week for February 5, 2022

 

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 Reacher, Suspicion, Murderville, The Batman and much more.

Crime fiction in general:

• Crime Reads shares the best new crime novels coming out this February.
  
• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels, mysteries and thrillers coming out this week. 
• Lisa Levy shares five psychological thrillers to read this February.
  
• Michelle Birkby discusses the rise of the proto-feminist detective novel in the interwar years.
  
• Seraphina Nova Glass shares some thrillers about infidelity.
• Sarah Hilary points out that crime fiction is full of orphans, outcasts and people who reinvent themselves.
• Stuart Gibbs discusses his favourite junior detectives.
  
• Allison Buccola talks about nosy neighbours in crime fiction.
• Jacquelyn Mitchard wonders why we feel so much empathy for villains.
• Lara Elena Donnelly talks about memorable parties in crime and suspense novels. 
• Robert McKaw explains how the Big Island of Hawaii inspired his crime novels. 
• John Barlow explains how his childhood in Yorkshire influenced his crime novels.
  
• Timothy Miller notes that Arthur Conan Doyle gave Sherlock Holmes a family connection to the Vernets, a family of distinguished French artists. 
• Lizzy Steiner shares eight true crime podcasts to listen to in 2022.
  
• Andrew Neiderman reports that Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews was banned from many school and even adult libraries
• The Por Por Books Blog remembers Ron Goulart.

 

Film and TV: 

• Martin Edwards declares that the Bond film No Time to Die was worth the wait.
  
• Leslie Felperin calls A Violent Man a hardnut prison drama. 
• Hector DeJean discusses the deadpan insanity of The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.
• Phil Hoad calls American Night a hot mess of a would-be Tarantino thriller. 
• Lisa Weidenfeld shares her thoughts on the latest episode of The Afterparty.
  
• Cath Clarke calls Caught in the Net a disturbing documentary about online child abuse.
• Rebecca Nicholson calls The Tinder Swindler a gripping true crime documentary. 
• Chris McGinley talks about crime and redemption in the movies of the Dardenne brothers.
  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1982 crime film The Disappearance of Harry.  
  
• Henry McDonald interviews Martin Hamilton, cousin of Kenneth Brannagh, who recalls how their childhood in Northern Ireland influenced Brannagh's movie Belfast.
  
• William Mullally interviews Matt Reeves, director of The Batman.
  
• Michael Carlson remembers Yvette Mimieux, star of The Time Machine, The Black Hole, The Desperate Hours, The Most Deadly Game and Jackson County Jail.
• Italian actress Monica Vitti, star of L'Avventura, Modesty Blaise and The Girl with the Pistol has died aged 90.
  

 

Comments on Reacher:

• Scott Von Doviak calls Reacher a bingeworthy adaptation of Lee Child's popular thrillers. 
• Lucy Mangan calls Reacher a lot of fun and much better than the film adaptations starring Tom Cruise. 
  
• Garrick Webster shares his thoughts on Reacher.
• Heather Martin takes a look at how Lee Child's The Killing Floor was adapted into the first season of Reacher.
  

Comments on Suspicion:

• Saloni Gajjar calls Suspicion an aggressively average thriller. 
• Lucy Mangan calls Suspicion a loose and baggy kidnapping thriller and also points out that Uma Thurman's much publicised appearance is a blink and you'll miss it cameo.
  

 

Comments on Murderville:

• Quinci LeGardye calls Murderville a blend of crime drama and improvised comedy. 
• Jack Seale calls Murderville torturous cringe.

 

Comments on The Batman:

•  Ben Child expects The Batman to be seriously messed up, which he enjoys.
• William Mullally interviews Matt Reeves, director of The Batman.
• Matt Maytum interviews Robert Pattinson, star of The Batman.

 

Awards:

• The finalists for the 2022 Agatha Awards have been announced.
  
• The finalists for the 2022 Barry Awards have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2022 Romantic Novel Awards have been announced.
• The finalists for the 2022 Minnesota Book Awards have been announced with some love for crime novels. 
• The 2022 Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award is open for submissions. 
  
• The 2022 Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction is open for submissions.
• The finalists for the 2022 Audie Awards have been announced. 
  
• The nominations for the 2022 Bafta Awards have been announced with some love for genre films. 
  
• The nominees for the 2022 Bafta Rising Star Award have been announced with some love for genre actors. 
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Elizabeth C. Bunce shares some not entirely serious relationship advice for the partners of mystery writers.
• Walter Jon Williams complains about lazy idiot plots.
  
• Delilah S. Dawson talks about character transformation. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about time management for writers.
  
• Tim Waggoner talks about writers' cliques and cabals and why those are a myth, even if writing friendships are valuable.
  
• Alison Flood reports that the entire first print runs of two cookbooks have been lost at sea, when more than sixty containers went overboard during a storm in the Atlantic. 
• Maya Yang reports about the eight-year-old author Dillon Helbig who snuck a handwritten and hand-illustrated book into a library in Idaho only to have it welcomed by librarians.
  
• Alison Flood reports that the Gaza Bookshop, which was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, is able to reopen after a global donation campaign.
• Mike Glyer reports that Don Blyly has found new premises for the Uncle Hugo's and Uncle Edgar's science fiction and mystery specialty bookstores, after the old building was burned down during the riots in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following the death of George Floyd by police violence.
  

Interviews: 

• Alex Segura interviews Paul Vidich. 
• Eli Cranor interviews Laura Lippman.
  
• Paul Burke interviews Dean Koontz. 
• Dr. Jacky Collins interviews James Oswald.
  
• Wrong Place, Write Crime interviews David Temple.
• John A. Hoda interviews David Hodges.
  

Reviews:

• Sandra Mangan reviews The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths.
  
• Paul Burke reviews The Second Cut by Louise Welsh.
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews The Runaway by Nick Petrie.
  
• Grab This Book reviews Remember My Name by Sam Blake. 
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Hold My Place by Cassondra Windwalker.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews These Deadly Games by Diana Urban.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Dying Fall by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.
• Becky LeJeune reviews The House of Ashes by Stuart Neville.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews The Pine Barrens Strategem by Ken Harris. 
• Gabino Iglesias reviews Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead.
  
• Punk Noir Magazine reviews The Pussy Detective by DuVay Knox.
• Adam Colcough reviews The Fear Index by Robert Harris.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Cold by Mariko Tamaki. 
• Leah Schnelbach reviews Devil House by John Darnielle.  
  
• Becky LeJeune reviews The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf. 
• Caren Gussoff Sumption reviews The King of Infinite Space by Lyndsay Faye. 
  
• Michael Jacks reviews A Loyal Traitor by Tim Glister.  
  
• Becky LeJeune reviews Good Rich People by Eliza Jane Brazier.
• Gwen Moffat reviews The Couple at the Table by Sophie Hannah.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Appeal by Janice Hallett. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano.
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Totally Pawstruck by Sofie Ryan.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Honey Roasted by Cleo Coyle and tries a recipe from the book.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Easter Bonnet Murder by Leslie Meier.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Shady Hollow by Juneau Black.
• C. Matthew Smith reviews A Therapeutic Death by J.B. Stevens.
• John Parker reviews Shadow Voices. 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction: A History in Stories, edited by John Connolly.
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Doreen Sheridan revisits the 1863 mystery The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Warren Adams.
  
• Alan Brown revisits the 1935 Doc Savage novel Murder Melody by Kenneth Robeson a.k.a. Lawrence Donovan and the 1991 Doc Savage novel Escape From Loki by Phlip José Farmer.   
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1936 mystery Post After Post-Mortem by E.C.R. Lorac.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1937 mystery Death in the Hopfields by John Rhode.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1942 mystery Background for Murder by Shelley Smith. 
• Runalong the Shelves revisits the 1957 suspense novel The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham by Anthony Armstrong. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1959 Steve Bentley crime novel The House on Q Street by Robert Dietrich a.k.a. E. Howard Hunt.
  
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger by Ian Fleming. 
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1961 noir novel A Taste for Sin by Gil Brewer.
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1961 mystery The Witch of the Low Tide by John Dickson Carr. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1962 erotic suspense novel Whip of Desire by March Hastings a.k.a. Sally Singer. 
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1969 St. Ives crime novel The Brass Go-Between by Oliver Bleeck a.k.a. Ross Thomas.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1976 crime novel Target for Terror by S.A. Martinez.
• Steven Nester revisits the 1983 mystery Dancing Bear by James Crumley.
  

 

Con and event reports:

• The line-up for the 2022 Lyme Crime festival in Lyme Regis, UK, has been announced.
• Ayo Onatade shares a call for papers for the conference The Golden Age of Crime: A Reappraisal in Bournemouth, UK.
• Elizabeth Foxwell reports about three mystery themed exhibitions at the Toronto Public Library in Toronto, Canada.
  

 

Research:

• Ian Millhiser reports about a decision of the US Supreme Court regarding the legality of executions and execution methods in the US. 
• Neil Bradbury remembers Dr. Harald Shipman, the UK's most prolific serial killer. 
• Hollie Richardson reports about fake medium and con man M. Lamar Keene, who eventually turned whistleblower about the scams of fake psychics.
• Ryan Katz chronicles the impact that the murder of Elizabeth Alexander in 1971 had on her children and those of her murderer decades after the crime.
  
• T.A. Willberg talks about Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre a.k.a. Hanslope Park, where Britain's spy gadgets are created.
• Sam Jones reports about the doomed transatlantic voyage of a submarine designed to smuggle cocaine.
  
• Jim Cornelius chronicles the career of 18th century pirate Sam Bellamy.
• Alan Judd delves into the mystery of who killed Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.
  

Free online fiction:

• "Cajun Omelette" by Matthew B. McDonough in Mystery Tribune.
• "Diner Special" by Brennan Burks in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Nothing Personal" by Janet Anderson-Murch in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Take Me At My Word" by Michael Washburn in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Auld Ang Syne" by Thomas Belton in Mystery Tribune. 
• "The Beetle" by Erik Dargitz in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Sand and Ash" by Jonathan Ferrini in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Good Guy With a Gun" by Michael Zimecki in Guilty.
  
• "If You Gaze Long Enough" by Joe Haward in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "Santa Monica Scares" by Joel Bush in The Five-Two.