Crime Fiction Links of the Week for December 23, 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 the best mysteries and crime novels of 2022, The Pale Blue Eye, Glass Onion, Vardy v. Rooney: A Courtroom Drama, The Unofficial Science of Home Alone, tributes to Mike Hodges and much more.

Crime fiction in general:  

• John Valeri shares a round-up of Christmas themed crime novels and mysteries. 
• Victoria Selman, Araminta Hall, Erin Kelly and C.L. Taylor discuss why women are drawn to crime fiction.
  
• Alicia Beckman lists authors who write both outstanding crime series and stellar standalones. 
• Alex Kenna shares her favourite Los Angeles noir novels by female writers.
  
• Victoria Gilbert shares eight mystery series featuring librarians and booksellers as amateur detectives. 
• Olivia Blacke shares cozy mystery series that fans of the TV series Only Murders in the Building will enjoy.
  
• Eli Cranor looks back on a year of interviewing crime fiction writers. 
• Molly Templeton wonders how to measure a year in reading. 
  
• Cole Rush explains why he started a home lending library. 
  
• The Tor.com staff remember memorable books they received as gifts. 
  
• Karen Heller wonders what to do with old books, when their owners die or no longer want them. 
• Jennifer Schuessler reports that Thomas Pynchon has sold his papers to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. 
  
• Paul French shares his favourite international true crime podcasts. 
• J. Dennis Robinson recounts how literary agent James T. Fields persuaded Charles Dickens to tour the US in 1867. 
  
• Christy Cooney reports that crime fiction writer Ann Cleeves has recovered the laptop with a half-finished novel that she lost during a blizzard in Shetland, Scotland.
  

 

Best of 2022:

• Mike Parker shares his favourite crime novels of 2022. 
• Ayo Onatade shares her favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Ali Karim shares his favourite crime novels of 2022. 
• Paul Burke shares his favourite crime novels of 2022. 
• Sonja van der Westhuizen shares her five favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Fraser Massey shares his favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Declan Hughes shares his favourite crime novels of 2022.
• Erin Britton shares her favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Mike Ripley shares his favourite crime novels of 2022. 
• M.W. Craven shares his favourite crime novels of 2022. 
• L.J. Roberts shares her favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Steele Curry shares his favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Stephen Miller shares his favourite crime novels of 2022.
• Jim Napier shares his favourite crime novels of 2022.
  
• Natasha Cooper shares her five favourite crime novels of 2022.
• Mike Bursaw shares his favourite crime novels and thrillers of 2022.
• Katie McLain Horner and Kendra Winchester share their favourite mysteries and crime novels of 2022.  
• Ted Hertel shares his favourite mysteries of 2022.
  
• Ben Hunt shares his favourite crime and other novels of 2022.
  
• Book Marks shares the best reviewed crime and mystery books of 2022. 
• Crime Reads share their favourite debut crime novels of 2022.
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite international crime novels of 2022.
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite science fiction mysteries of 2022. 
  
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite YA mysteries of 2022.
  
• Grab This Book shares their favourite crime and mystery audiobooks of 2022.
• Crime Reads shares their favourite true crime books of 2022. 
• Olivia Rutigliano shares her favourite crime movies of 2022.
  

 

 Film and TV:

• Rebecca Nicholson calls Sherwood one of the best TV shows of 2022.
  
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the Australian crime drama True Colours. 
• Brian Parker shares his thoughts on the Agatha Christie adaptation Hjerson.
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Echo 3.
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of The Mosquito Coast.
• Manuel Betancourt shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Welcome to Chippendales.
  
• Peter Bradshaw calls The Battle at Water Gate Bridge a wooden Chinese propaganda war movie.
• Vince Keenan shares Hitchcock style films not actually directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
  
• Olivia Rutigliano shares ten crime movies you forgot take place at Christmas. 
• Catherine Shoard interviews Joseph Kosinski, director of Top Gun Maverick.
  
• Peter Bradshaw revisits the 1949 historical crime drama The Queen of Spades. 
  
• Miranda Bryant reports that Steven Spielberg has expressed regret for the persecution and extermination of sharks following his 1975 movie Jaws.  
• Justin Carter reports that the anime Spy x Family is not only getting a second season, but also a movie.  
• Alexi Duggins reports that Line of Duty may be coming back for a three-part special.
  

 

Tributes to Mike Hodges:

• Mike Hodges, director of Get Carter, Flash Gordon, Pulp, Croupier, The Terminal Man and others, has died aged 90.
• Peter Bradshaw calls Mike Hodges a masterful director who was as comfortable with gritty crime dramas as with zany science fiction films.
• Brian Baxter shares an obituary for Mike Hodges.
  

 

Comments on The Pale Blue Eye:

• Peter Bradshaw calls The Pale Blue Eye a ridiculous and gruesome historical crime drama. 
• Courtney Howard declares that the biggest mystery about The Pale Blue Eye is why the film isn't better.
  

 

Comments on Glass Onion: 

• Sam Briger interviews Rian Johnson, director of Glass Onion.
• GQ interviews Rian Johnson.
  
• Rebecca Nicholson interviews the cast of Glass Onion.
• The AV-Club interviews Madelyn Cline and Jessica Henwick, two of the stars of Glass Onion. 
  

 

Comments on Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama: 

• Lucy Mangan calls Vardy v Rooney: A Courtroom Drama a blow by blow reenactment of the court transcript, but since the case in question was extraordinarily bizarre, that's fine.
• Zoe Williams interviews Natalia Tena, one of the stars of Vardy v. Rooney: A Courtroom Drama.
  

 

Comments on The Unofficial Science of Home Alone:

• Alexi Duggins reports that the British comedians James Acaster and Guz Khan have recreated the holiday booby traps from Home Alone in The Unofficial Science of Home Alone and find them predictably painful and dangerous.
• Stuart Heritage declares that The Unofficial Science of Home Alone would have been better with more wisecracking and less suffering.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Ann Langley shares her monthly tarot draw for writers.
• Destiny Soria explains how RPGs made her a better writer.
  
• Josh Haven shares ten things writers should know about guns.
• Aidan Moher interviews several authors about why they use pen names.
  
• The Guardian shares the confession of a ghost writer of celebrity children's books. 
• Linda Codega reports that Tor experienced a backlash after using AI-generated stock art on the cover of the upcoming novel Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini.  
• Alyssa Shotwell also reports about the backlash against Tor for using AI-generated art on the cover of Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini.
  
• Emell Derra Adolphus shares an update about the ongoing strike of the HarperCollins Union. 
  
• Neil Clarke weighs in on Amazon discontinuing its magazine and newspaper subscription service and instead adding magazines and newspaper subscriptions to their Kindle Unlimited program. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch discusses what else Amazon did in 2022.
  
• CBS Morning reports about Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon. 
• Lauren Oster reports about Iceland's so-called Christmas book flood.
  
• Ed Nawortka reports that the bookstore chain Books & Books in Miami, Florida, has launched an initiative to support the literary community in Ukraine.
  
• Literary agent Henry Morrison, who represented Samuel R. Delany, Dean Koontz, Robert Ludlum and David Morrell among others, has died aged 86.

 

Interviews: 

• BOLO Books interviews Heather Levy.
• Debbi Mack interviews Chip Jacobs. 
• Criminal Element interviews Olivia Blacke and Olivia Matthews,
  

Reviews:

• Kevin Tipple reviews Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo.
• BOLO Books reviews Standing by the Wall by Mick Herron.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Little Red House by Liv Anderson.
• BOLO Books reviews Never Let Go by Lori Duffy Foster.
  
• BOLO Books reviews You Never Said Goodbye by Luca Veste. 
• Jake Arnott reviews Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor. 
• The Book Decoder reviews The Contraband Killings by Lucienne Boyce.
  
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Death on the Rhine by Heather Peck. 
• The Quick and the Dead reviews Murder on the Christmas Express by Alexandra Benedict. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Bookclubbed to Death by V.M. Burns. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Through the Liquor Glass by Sarah Fox and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews Devil's Delight by M.C. Beaton and R.W. Green
• Crossexamining Crime reviews Down the Hatch by M.C. Beaton and R.W. Green. 
• The Book Decoder reviews Sleuthing in Stilettos by Debra Sennefelder.
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews The No. 2 Feline Detective Agency by Mandy Morton
• Crossexamining Crime reviews The Cat Who Caught a Killer by L.T. Shearer.
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews Ragged by Christopher Irvin. 
• Fiona Denton reviews Dream of Death City by P.J. Nwosu.  

Classics reviews:

• Michael R. Brown revisits the 1946 adventure series Treasure Seekers by H. Bedford-Jones.
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews the 1954 suspense novel The Better To Eat You by Charlotte Armstrong.
• Paperback Warriors revisits the 1963 heist novel The Heisters by Robert Page Jones. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1970 gothic novel Bloodroots Manor by Claudette Nicolle a.k.a. Jon Messman. 
• Fiona Sturges revisits the 1983 gothic horror novella The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. 
  

Con and event reports:

• Ayo Onatade looks ahead at the thirtieth St. Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend in August 2023 in Oxford, UK. 
• Mike Glyer shares the program of the 2023 Vintage Paperback Collectors Show and Sale in Glendale, California.
  
• David Smith reports about a visit to the Museum of Broadway in New York City. 
• Sabina Graves and Bryan Davis share a virtual tour of theliterary themed distillery Lost Spiritis in Las Vegas, Nevada. 
  

 

Research:

• Steven Morris reports that a woman is Wales has pled guilty to manslaughter, because she did not control the weight of her obese daughter, who subsequently died.
• Kate Connolly shares former tennis player Boris Becker's experiences in prison. 
• Mack DeGeurin reports that a lawyer working on a case against MSG Entertainment was identified via facial recognition technology and thrown out of the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular in New York City, which she was attending with her young daughter.  
  
• Victoria Thompson talks about nineteenth and early twentieth century con artists.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Police Navidad" by Josh Pachter in Kings River Life. 
• "Santa's Helper" by John M. Floyd in Kings River Life.
  
• "Bring It" by Terry Shames in Kings River Life. 
• "Home For Christmas" by C-B. Peterson in Kings River Life.
  
• "The Afternoon Before Christmas" by Mark Murphy in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast. 
• "Saint Nicked" by Herschel Cozine in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
  
• "Santa's Cookie" by Russell Thayer in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Wallace and the Whale" by Max Thrax in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "You Are the Body" by James Hadley Griffin in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Toast" by Alan Caldwell in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Femme Fatale" by Bram Harris in Mystery Tribune.
• “I Had a Feeling Something Like This Would Happen” by Nicholas Altobelli in Mystery Tribune.
• "Arcángeles" by Zachary Vasquez in Mystery Tribune. 
• "The Man From Warwick" by Austin Gilmore in Mystery Tribune.