Crime Fiction Links of the Week for February 25, 2023

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 an uproar surrounding edits of Roald Dahl's works, the problem of a flood of AI generated fiction, an uproar at the social media site Spoutible, Poker Face, The Consultant, Cocaine Bear, Liaison, tributes to Richard Belzer and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Alison Flood shares a round-up of the best recent crime novels and thrillers.
• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Crime Reads shares the best debut crime novels of February 2023.
  
• Rupert Holmes talks about the best plot twists in mysteries. 
• Elli Brannigan shares five cozy mysteries about characters who are starting over. 
• Julia Bartz talks about psychological thrillers featuring female psychopaths. 
• Misha Popp shares novels about female serial killers.
  
• Anastasia Klimchynskaya shares ten classic tales of swashbuckling historical intrigue.
• Laura Miller reports about "The Coldest Case in Laramie", the latest season of the popular true crime podcast Serial. 
• Molly Templeton discusses what we talk about when we talk about our favourite books.  
• Sarah Shaffi reports that BookTrust writer in residence S.F. Said has said that children (and adults) should be allowed to read for pleasure.   
• Margaret Atwood responds to a library in Madison Country, Virginia, banning her 1985 dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale.
• Spy fiction author Ted Bell has died aged 76.
  

 

Comments on the edits to Roald Dahl's works:

• Hayden Vernon reports that many of Roald Dahl's classic children's books have been rewritten to remove language now deemed offensive. 
• The Guardian reports about the backlash against the Roald Dahl alterations.
  
• Jennifer Hassan reports that Salman Rushdie has spoken out against the edits of Roald Dahl's work. 
• The Guardian reports about YA author Philip Pullman and British prime minister Rishi Sunak's reactions to the alteration of the Roald Dahl books.
  
• Lincoln Michel points out that corporate profits are the only motivation behind the Roald Dahl edits.

 

Film and TV:

• Peter Bradshaw declares that Luther: The Fallen Sun is too focussed on grisly violence and does not offer the same character-related interest as the TV series. 
  
• Benjamin Lee calls Creed III a knockout boxing drama. 
• Benjamin Lee calls Missing an inventive, if far-fetched mystery.
  
• Peter Bradshaw calls Limbo a hardbitten outback noir with a compassionate heart.
  
• Adam Fleet calls Hell or High Water an ambiguously brilliant crime film.
  
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Your Honor.
  
• Charna Flam shares some insight about the series finale of Ozark. 
• Garrick Webster looks ahead at the historical crime drama Paris Police 1905.
  
• Peter Bradshaw calls Reality a brilliant word for word replay of an actual FBI interrogation.
  
• Peter Bradshaw calls the Italian war movie Disco Boy a freaky trip into the heart of Imperial darkness. 
• Stuart Jeffries shares his thoughts on the true crime documentary series Parole.
  
• Rebecca Nicholson calls Con Girl an astonishing and outlandish true crime documentary.
• Emily Longeretta interviews Jesse Lee Soffer, who played Jay Halstead in Chicago P.D.
  
• Scott Tobias revisits the 1983 crime comedy The King of Comedy for its fortieth anniversary. 
• Michael Schulman recounts Stephen Spielberg's troubles making Jaws. 
  
• Carol Morley profiles British director and screenwriter Muriel Box, who helmed Street Corner, Eyewitness and many others.
• Pierra Willix reports that the BBC, ITV and Netflix no longer require actresses to wear corsets when filming period dramas, because some actresses complained about ill-fitting corsets causing pain.
  
• Kate Connolly interviews John Malkovich about the disappearance of his friend Julian Sands.  
• Jane Clinton reports that actor Tom Siemore, who appeared in Heat, Point Break, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan and others, is in critical condition following a brain aneurysm. 
• Screenwriter Robert Janes, who worked on the original Hawaii Five-O, has died aged 82.
  
• Actor Jansen Panettiere, who appeared in The Walking Dead, Major Crimes, The Forger and many others, has died aged only 28. 
• Actress Barbara Bosson, star of Hill Street Blues, The Last Starfighter, Hooperman, Murder One and many others, has died aged 83.

 

Tributes to Richard Belzer: 

• Actor and comedian Richard Belzer, who is best known for playing Detective Munch in Homicide: Life on the Streets and Law and Order: SVU and also appeared in The X-Files, The Flash, Superman: The Adventures of Lois and Clark, Third Rock From the Sun and many others, has died aged 78.  
• Harrison Smith and Meryl Kornfield share an obituary for Richard Belzer. 
• Alex Traub remembers Richard Belzer. 
• Chris Koseluk remembers Richard Belzer. 
• Jason Zinoman remembers Richard Belzer's career as a comedian.
  

 

Comments on Poker Face:

• Saloni Gajjar shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Poker Face.
  
• J. Kingston Pierce shares his thoughts on Poker Face.
  
• The Columbophile Blog traces the influence of Columbo on Poker Face.

 

Comments on The Consultant:

• Joel Golby calls The Consultant a dull thriller.
• Annie Berke calls The Consultant a stagnant workplace thriller. 
• Lucy Mangan praises the performance of Christoph Waltz in The Consultant.
  

 

Comments on Cocaine Bear: 

• Ellen E. Jones declares that Cocaine Bear struggles to live up to its sensational title. 
• Jordan Hoffman declares that Cocaine Bear offers fewer highs than hoped.
  
• Mike Ryan interviews Alden Ehrenreich, star of Solo and Cocaine Bear.  
• Marc Malkin interviews Elizabeth Banks, director of Cocaine Bear.
  

 

Comments on Liaison:

• Meredith Hobbs Coons calls Liaison French for bad TV.
• Rebecca Nicholson calls Liaison a total mess of a spy thriller.
  
• Stuart Jeffries interviews Vincent Cassel, star of Liaison.  

 

Awards:

• The finalists for the 2023 L.A. Times Book Prizes have been announced. 
  
• The winners of the 2023 Bafta Awards have been announced with lots of love for crappy literature adaptations and no love of crime films. 
• The winners of the 2023 DGA Awards have been announced with a little love for crime film and TV. 
   

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Lucy Snyder talks about descriptions and creating mood and atmosphere. 
• Patricia Raybon explains what art can teach us about writing villains. 
• Alex Gray shares her approach to researching her fiction.
  
• Alex Hern reports that Clarkesworld is closed to submissions after being flooded with AI-generated spam submissions. 
• Adrian Collins announces that Grimdark Magazine is closed to submissions due to AI spam until further notice, too.
  
• Mike Glyer reports that the social media start-up Spoutible has come under fire for its extremely restrictive sexual content policy, which affects a lot of romance writers.
• Anna Marble discusses the Spoutible uproar. 
  
• Lisa Tolin shares the most banned picture books in the US.
• Rusty Blazenhoff reports that the Sistah Scifi bookstore in Oakland, California, has launched vending machines featuring SFF books by black and indigenous authors. 
  
• Victoria Strauss reports that scammers are impersonating the Strand Bookstore in New York City.

 

Interviews: 

• The Book Reporter interviews Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor. 
• Ayo Onatade interviews Gregg Hurwitz.
  
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviews Gregg Hurwitz. 
• Dr. Jacky Collins interviews Ronnie Turner.
  
• Paul Burke interviews Simon Mason. 
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Peggy Rothschild.
  
• The Dark Phantom interviews Thomas White.
  
• Lisa Allardice interviews Eleanor Catton.
• Hephzibah Anderson interviews Em Strang.
  

Reviews:

• Blue Book Balloon reviews Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Shiver by Allie Reynolds. 
• Mary Picken reviews The Dead of Winter by Stuart MacBride. 
• Jen Lucas reviews The Chase by Ava Glass. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Last Grudge by Max Seeck. 
• Jen Lucas reviews Darkness Falls by Alex Knight.
  
• Carole Tyrell reviews The Institution by Helen Fields. 
• Jen Lucas reviews Reputation by Sarah Vaughan.
  
• Kevin Tipple reviews Dogtown by Howard Owen. 
  
• Mary Picken reviews God's Country by Kerry Hadley Price. 
• Sandie Herron reviews Desolation Mountain by William Kent Krueger.
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Cliff's Edge by Charles Todd. 
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews The Wrecker's Curse by Jo Silva.
  
• Beth Kanell reviews Lay This Body Down by Charles Fergus. 
• Janet Webb reviews Someone Had to Do It by Amber and Danielle Brown.
  
• Sandra Mangan reviews Other Women by Emma Flint.
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Paris Requiem by Chris Lloyd. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews City of the Dead by James Ponti. 
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews NYPD Red: The Murder Sorority by Marshall Karp. 
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Jackal by Erin E. Adams. 
  
• BOLO Books reviews Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes.
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews Murder at an Irish Castle by Ellie Brannigan.
• Lesa Holstine reviews Murder at an Irish Bakery by Carlene O'Connor.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Death in Irish Accents by Catie Murphy.
  
• Amy Myers reviews The Proof in the Pudding by Rosemary Shrager. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Primer and Punishment by Diane Kelly and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions by Art Taylor. 
• Mike Parker reviews Harker – The Black Hound – Part Two by Roger Gibson, Vincent Danks and Andrew Richmond
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie, edited. by Mary Anna Evans and J. C. Bernthal
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1912 Tarzan adventure novel Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1945 Pat and Jean Abbott mystery The Indigo Necklace by Frances Crane.
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1949 mystery Villainy at Vespers by Joan Cockin.
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1956 mystery Murder of an Owl by Glyn Carr. 
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1982 Matt Scudder detective novel Eight Million Ways to Die by Lawrence Block. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1993 historical crime novel To Die Like a Gentleman by Bernhard Bastable a.k.a. Robert Barnard.
  
• Craig Pittman revisits the 1995 crime novel Miami Purity by Vicki Hendricks.
  

Con and event reports:

• The Red Hot Chilli Writers look ahead at the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, Yorkshire. 
• Ayo Onatade shares the line-up for the 2023 CrimeFest in Bristol, UK.
  
• Arifa Akbar calls Unexpected Twist by Michael Rosen a beatboxing update of Oliver Twist, which is currently playing in Northhampton, UK.
  

 

Research: 

• Leanne Kale Sparks talks about the unsettling history of serial killers in Colorado. 
• Jonathan Payne discusses the occasional absurdity of espionage. 
• Diane Taylor interviews rape survivors Mary Sharp, Laura Hughes and Lauren Preston about how they took down the man who raped them.
• Jo Callaghan wonders if robots and artificial intelligences should take over crime fighting. 
• Michael Gonzalez talks about two rundown formerly upscale apartment blocks in Harlem, New York
  

 

Free online fiction: 

•  "Insurance Policies" by Albert N. Katz in Mystery Tribune
• "Turn of Fortune" by Terry Sanville in Mystery Tribune. 
• "Rain, Rain, Wash Away" by Patricia Bowen in Mystery Tribune.
• "The Big Splash" by Hillary Lyon in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Gather Together Who I Am" by Faye Turner-Johnson in The Five-Two.