Crime Fiction Links of the Week for March 11, 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, R.L. Stine's and Ian Fleming's works, the problem of a flood of AI generated fiction, Poker Face, the final series of Endeavour, season 2 of the new Perry Mason, series 5 of Unforgotten, season 4 of You, version Creed III, Scream VI, tributes to Christpher Fowler, Tom Sizemore, Chaim Topol and Robert Blake and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels and mysteries coming out this week. 
• Garrick Webster shares five women writers of crime fiction to read.
• Marie Still talks about the rise of domestic thrillers and the lingering impact of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. 
  
• William Landay muses why crime novels resonate so much with the sort of people who are highly unlikely to ever commit a crime. 
• Sarah Lyu muses that thrillers are a metaphor for the unknown within ourselves. 
• Amanda Traylor talks about weaving social issues into thrillers. 
• Erica Waters explains how unsettling landscapes can help writers to explore human darkness.
  
• Anne Burt talks about social justice and crime fiction.
  
• Paul French takes a look at crime fiction set in Odessa, Ukraine. 
• Kate Lansing shares cozy mysteries featuring weddings. 
• Deanna Raybourn talks about mysteries triggered by anonymous letters.
• Sarah Weinman profiles Patricia Highsmith.
  
• Peter Swanson talks about the inspiration for his crime novel The Kind Worth Saving.
• Molly Templeton talks about trying to read too many books at once.  
• John Rechy remembers crime fiction writer Henry Turner.
  

 

Tributes to Christopher Fowler: 

• Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May series of supernatural mysteries, has died aged 69.  
• J. Kingston Pierce remembers Christopher Fowler. 
• Janet Rudolph remembers Christopher Fowler.
• Locus remembers Christopher Fowler. 
• Martin Edwards remembers Christopher Fowler.

 

Comments on the flooding of Clarkesworld and other magazines with AI spam:

• Elizabeth Minkel discusses the flood of AI submissions deluging SFF magazines.
• The SFWA shares a round-up of member responses to the issue of AI writing and art. 
• Matt Ford reports that AI generated writing and artwork runs up against the US copyright office. 
• John Scalzi has found a positive use for AI, namely photography.
  

 

Comments on the edits to Roald Dahl's, R.L. Stine's and Ian Fleming's works:

• Matthew Walther weights in on the edits to Roald Dahl's books
  
• Tom Gauld weighs in on the edits to Roald Dahl's works.
• Sky News reports that R.L. Stine's Goosebumps novels have also been edited to remove terms deemed offensive.

 

Film and TV:

• C.T. Phipps calls Mandy a bog-standard story of grief-fueled vengeance turned psychedelic journey through Hell.
• Murtada Elfadi declares that Idris Elba is the best reason to watch Luther: The Fallen Sun. 
• Manuel Betancourt calls A Spy Among Friends an elegant Cold War thriller. 
• Phil Hoad calls The Irish Mob a dud gangster film.
  
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the first two episodes of season 2 of Paris Police 1905. 
• Quinci LaGardye declares that part 2 of the South Korean revenge drama The Glory packs even more of a punch.
  
• Leslie Felperin calls Charcoal a tremendous thriller from Brazil 
• Alasdair Stuart calls Cocaine Bear an apex B-movie that does exactly what it says on the tin. 
  
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts about the latest episode of Better. 
• Roxana Hadadi finds the best filmic fight scene of the year in Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday. 
• Phil Hoad calls the latest adaptation of The Three Musketeers a stripped down but fresh take on a classic.  
• Jack Seale calls Undercover Ambulance: NHS in Chaos a horrifying documentary.
  
• Lucy Mangan calls We Need to Talk About Cosby a shocking documentary. 
• Lucy Mangan calls Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop a shocking documentary about sexual abuse in Japan's boyband scene.
  
• Adrian Horton shares her thoughts on the documentary MH370: The Plane That Disappeared. 
• Todd McEwen revisits the 1959 spy thriller North by Northwest.
  
• Leah Schnelbach shares eleven life lessons she learned from the 1988 animated/live action fantasy crime movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
  
• Glen Erik Hamilton revisits the 1998 neo-noir movie Twilight. 
• Ethan Warren revisits the 2014 Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice.
  
• Shaun Duke ranks all the James Bond theme songs. 
  
• Lane Brown notes that bad projection is ruining the movie theatre experience. 
• Catherine Shoard reports that actress Sharon Stone lost custody of her than four-year-old son because of her role in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct.   
• Andrew Pulver reports that actor and screenwriter Seth Rogen has spoken about how painful negative reviews can be.
  
• Actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks out against Anti-Semitism. 
  
• Stuart Heritage reports that scientists have named a new range of antimicrobials after actors Keanu Reeves.  
• Denise Petski reports that NCIS: Los Angeles fill finish its run with a two-part special.
  

 

Tributes to Tom Sizemore, Chaim Topol and Robert Blake:

• Actor Tom Sizemore, who appeared in Heat, Natural Born Killer, True Romance, Point Break, Saving Private Ryan, The Relic, Hawaii Five-0 and many others, has died following a brain aneurysm aged 61
• Peter Bradshaw remembers Tom Sizemore. 
• Michael Carlson shares an obituary for Tom Sizemore. 
• Matt Zoller Seitz remembers Tom Sizemore. 
• Alejandra Gularte shares tributes to Tom Sizemore from friends and colleagues.
• Israeli actor Chaim Topol, star of Flash Gordon, For Your Eyes Only and Fiddler on the Roof has died aged 87.  
• Siam Goorwich remembers Chaim Topol. 
• Actor Robert Blake, the final surviving member of Our Gang as well as star of Baretta and In Cold Blood and accused of murdering his wife in real life, has died aged 89.   
• J. Kingston Pierce remembers Robert Blake.
• Douglas Martin remembers Robert Blake. 

 

 Comments on Poker Face:

• Saloni Gajjar declares that Poker Face ends its first season in a blaze of glory.
• Justin Hairston offers a road map of season 1 of Poker Face.
  

 

Comments on season 2 of the new Perry Mason:

• Matt Schimkowitz shares his thoughts on the season 2 premiere of the new Perry Mason.
• Saloni Gajjar interviews Matthew Rhys, star of Perry Mason.
  

 

Comments on the final series of Endeavour: 

• Chris Jenkins shares his thoughts on the penultimate episode of Endeavour.
• Louisa Mellor shares her thoughts on the first episode of the final series of Endeavour.
  
• Paul Hirons interviews Roger Allam who plays Fred Thursday in Endeavour. 
• J. Kingston Pierce wonders how Endeavour will end.
  

 

Comments on series 5 of Unforgotten:

• Michael Hogan shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Unforgotten.
• Deborah Shrwsbury shares her thoughts about the latest episode of Unforgotten.
  

 

Comments on part 2 of season 4 of You:

• Leila Latif calls season 4 of You both utterly terrible and yet perfect. 
• Saloni Gajjar finds part 2 of season 4 of You more entertaining than ever. 
• Saloni Gajjar interviews Penn Badgley, star of You.
  

 

Comments on Creed III:

• Alasdair Stuart declares that Creed III is less about the boxing match than about the journey of the characters.
  
• Angelique Jackson interviews Michael B. Jordan, star and director of Creed III.
  
• Justin Carter reports that Creed III had a 100 million US-dollar opening weekend.
  

 

Comments on Scream VI: 

• Benjamin Lee calls Scream VI a standout slasher sequel. 
• Phil Pirello calls Scream VI one of the best and most brutal sequels of Scream. 
• Germain Lussier declares that Scream VI keeps the series fresh and that he loves that about it. 
• Germain Lussier interviews Scream VI directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett and producer Chad Villella
• Cheryl Eddy shares her ten favourite supporting characters in the Scream series. 
• Anthony D'Alessandro reports that Scream VI is about to have a record-breaking opening weekend.
  

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2023 Romantic Novel Awards have been announced.  
• The longlist for the 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction has been announced. 
  
• The winners of the 2023 Writers Guild Awards have been announced with some love for crime film and TV. 
• Mark Keizer ranks the fifteen worst winners of the Oscar for Best Picture.  
• Readers of the Guardian share their favourites for the 2023 Academy Awards. 
   

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• William Landay talks about blurring the lines between author and narrator. 
• G.D. Dess talks about book blurbs. 
• C.L. Polk declares that BookTok fame is a lightning strike.
  
• Victoria Strauss warns writers about a spammy and scammy book award. 
• Nadia Khomani reports about women opening bookshops in the UK.
  
• Lucy Knight reports that the bookstore chain Waterstones claims that there is no truth to the claim that they refuse to stock certain books on gender and feminism.
  
• Alina Selyukh reports that bookstore chain Barnes & Noble has expanded in 2022 for the first time in years.
  
• Mike Glyer reports that the library of the Massachussetts Institute for Technology Science Fiction Society in Boston, Massachussetts, suffered flood damage after several pipes burst in the building where it is housed.
• Rupert Heath, publisher of Dean Street Press, has died aged 55. 
  

 

Interviews: 

• Criminal Element interviews Alex Finlay.
• Alan Petersen interviews Freida McFadden. 
• Debbi Mack interviews Saralyn Richard. 
• The Red Hot Chili Writers interview Andrew Taylor.
• Paul Burke interviews John Sayles. 
  
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviews Gary Edgington. 
• Lisa Haselton interviews Wendy L. Koenig.
  
• Peter Handel interviews Christopher Bollen.
  

Reviews:

• Sandra Mangan reviews Exiles by Jane Harper. 
• Publishers Weekly reviews The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson.
  
• BOLO Books reviews What Have We Done by Alex Finlay. 
• Tzer Island reviews Storm Watch by C.J. Box.
  
• Adam Colclough reviews Unnatural History by Jonathan Kellerman.
  
• Mary Picken reviews The Space Between Us by Doug Johnstone.
  
• Mary Picken reviews Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent.
  
• Kathy Reel reviews Hide by Tracy Clark.
• Mike Parker reviews Freeze by Kate Simants. 
• Damp Pebbles reviews Freeze by Kate Simants. 
  
• Elizabeth Lowry reviews The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy
  
• Mandie Griffiths reviews What Will Burn by James Oswald. 
• Raven Crime Reads reviews The Hand That Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende, translated by Tim Gutteridge.
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Hand That Feeds You by Mercedes Rosende, translated by Tim Gutteridge.
• Carol Iaciofano Aucoin reviews All That Is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay.
• Elena Hartwell reviews The Family Bones by Elle Marr.
  
• Mike Parker reviews White Fox by Owen Matthews. 
• Tzer Island reviews White Fox by Owen Matthews.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Standing Dead by Margaret Mizushima. 
  
• Jen Lucas reviews The Siege by John Sutherland.
  
• Mary Picken reviews The Close by Jane Casey.
  
• The Quick and the Read reviews The Close by Jane Casey.
• Jen Lucas reviews The Institution by Helen Fields. 
• Grab This Book reviews The Institution by Helen Fields. 
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews The Dentist by Tim Sullivan. 
• Lydia Lefevre reviews The Angel Maker by Alex North.
  
• Russell James reviews The Translator by Harriet Crawley.
  
• Tanjil Rashid reviews Tell Her Everything by Mirza Waheed. 
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Make Me Clean by Tina Baker.  
• Mary Picken reviews Twist of Fate by D.L. Mark. 
• Marlene Harris reviews Nightwatch by M.L. Buchman.
• Lucy Popescu reviews All Your Children, Scattered by Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse
  
• Tony R. Cox reviews Rivers of Treason by K.J. Maitland.
• Marlene Harris reviews The London Seance Society by Sarah Penner.
• Carol Westron reviews The Dead Will Rise by Chris Nickson.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Deadly Weed by Cora Harrison.
• Lesa Holstine reviews Bert and Mamie Take a Cruise by John Keyse-Walker
  
• Grab This Book reviews Blood on the Tracks by Guy Hale.
• Steven Nester reviews Bloody Martini by William Kotzwinkle. 
• Colette Bancroft reviews The Maltese Iguana by Tim Dorsey.
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews The Killing of Polly Carter by Robert Thorogood.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Death in Irish Accents by Catie Murphy
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Till Death Do Us Port by Kate Lansing and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• Jen Lucas reviews The Dying Squad by Adam Simcox.
  
• Alex Brown reviews The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older. 
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Mark Dawidziak.  
• Fiona Sturges reviews A Private Spy: The Letters of John Le Carré by John Le Carré.
  

 

Classics reviews:

• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1933 mystery The Mad Hatter Mystery by John Dickson Carr.
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1936 Hercule Poirot mystery The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1937 PC Richardson mystery The Milliner's Hat Mystery by Sir Basil Thompson.
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1939 mystery They Rang Up the Police by Joanna Cannan.
  
• Paul Burke revisits the 1941 noir novel The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. 
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1949 Perry Mason mystery The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom by Erle Stanley Gardner. 
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1959 Father Bredder mystery The Saint Maker by Leonard Holton a.k.a. Leonard Wibberley.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1980 Harry Stoner hardboiled mystery The Lime Pit by Jonathan Vallis. 
• Polly Stewart and Angie Kim revisit the 1994 war novel In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien. 
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1995 Stakeout Squad men's adventure novel Miami Heat by D.A. Hodgmen a.k.a. Dorothy Ayoob.
  

Con and event reports:

• Mary Picken shares more of her experiences at the Granite Noir festival in Aberdeen, Scotland.
  
• Joy Kluver reports about the Mystery and Menace event, featuring Elly Griffiths and Lesley Thompson, at the West Barnes Library in London, UK.
• Ayo Onatade shares the crime fiction related programming at the FT Oxford Literary Festival in Oxford, UK.
  
• Arifa Akbar calls How to Break Out of a Detention Centre by Sînziana Cojocărescu a daring stage play about the stories of migrant women, which is currently playing in London, UK.
• Andrew Pulver reports that the Edinburgh Film Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, will return this summer in scaled down form following its surprising cancellation last year.   

 

Research: 

• Haroon Siddique reports about the latest parole hearing of Charles Bronson (not the actor), one of the UK's longest serving and most notorious prisoners
• Amit Katwala talks about the invention of the polygraph.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Hickory Nut" by Alan Caldwell in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Those Who Remain Quiet" by James Callan in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "Trading Fours" by Alex Rosenberg in Mystery Tribune.
• "Shame the Devil" by Joseph Goodrich in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's Fiction Podcast
• "Murder at the Menger" by Kathleen Kaska in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
• "Intangible Variation" by Meg Charlton in Slate Future Tense. 
• "All the Things a Head Contained" by Celesté Cosme in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Six-Shooter" by Tony Dawson in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailers and videos:

• Watch a trailer for Citadel.
• Watch a trailer for Upon Entry. 
• Watch a trailer for season 2 of Yellowjackets. 
  
• Watch a trailer for season 7 of Riverdale.