Crime Fiction Links of the Week for May 20, 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 Steeltown Murders, High Desert, Hypnotic, Fast X, the WGA strike and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week.
• Alison Flood shares a round-up of the best recent thrillers. 
• Laura Wilson shares a round-up of the best recent crime novels and thrillers.
  
• Molly Odintz shares the best international crime novels coming out in May 2023.
  
• Kate White shares seven fabulous thrillers and the craft lessons they teach. 
• M.P. Woodward shares three thriller characters you can root for.
• Samantha Hastings shares her favourite female sleuths in historical mysteries.
  
• Jessica Hamilton shares six thriller about extra-marital affairs.
• Kate Griffin talks about the enduring appeal of bad girls in fiction. 
  
• Paul French lists crime and spy novels set in Kabul, Afganistan. 
• Adam Mitzner talks about realism and poetic licence in legal thrillers.
  
• Lily Meyer finds some parallels between the 1999 film Ghost Dog and literary translation.  
• Olivia Rutigliano talks about all the monsters both actual and metaphorical in Charlotte Bronte's 1848 gothic novel Jane Eyre. 
• Genevieve Cogman discusses how to reimagine The Scarlet Pimpernel for a modern audience. 
  

 

Film and TV:

• Leslie Felperin calls Little Bone Lodge a tense thriller. 
• Jack Seale calls Muted a thriller so bad that it's barely watchable.
  
• Chris Jenkins shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Astrid: Murder in Paris.
  
• Chris Jenkins shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Dalgliesh.
  
• Matt Schimkovitz shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Barry. 
• Garrick Webster shares his thoughts on the French crime drama I Killed My Husband. 
• Peter Bradshare calls The Delinquents a slow motion heist movie from Argentina.
  
• Leslie Felperin calls The Other Fellow a whimsical documentary about people who happen to be called James Bond and their famous namesake.  
• Lucy Mangan calls Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight a sensitive true crime documentary. 
• Stuart Klawans revisits the 1941 caper movies The Lady Eve.
  
• Victoria Silverwolf revisits the 1968 biker movies The Hellcats, The Mini-Skirt Mob and She-Devils on Wheels.
• Martin Edwards revisits the ,Eye in the Skye 2015 action movie Eye in the Sky.
  
• Ian Spelling ranks his favourite movie car chases. 
• Damian Holbrook interviews Jared Padalecki, star of Supernatural and Walker. 
  
• Germain Lussier interviews Louis Leterrier, director of The Incredible Hulk, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, The Transporter, Fast X and many others. 

 

Comments on High Desert: 

• Saloni Gajjar calls High Desert a weird and delightful private investigator comedy. . 
• Lucy Mangan calls High Desert a crime comedy that's so jampacked it's exhaustin
  

 

Comments on Fast X:

• Scott Tobias calls Fast X a stupidly entertaining sequel.
• Ray Greene calls Fast X a death- and logic-defying sequel. 
• Germain Lussier declares that even Jason Momoa's incredible new villain cannot save Fast X. 
• Germain Lussier discusses the end credits scene of Fast X.
  

 

 Comments on Steeltown Murders:

• Lucy Mangan calls Steeltown Murders a timely crime drama. 
• Paul Jirons shares his thoughts on the first episode of Steeltown Murders.
  
• Paul Hirons interviews Philip Glenister, star of Steeltown Murders.
  

 

Comments on Hypnotic: 

• Benjamin Lee calls Hypnotic a goofy B-movie thriller that would like to be Inception.  
• Matthew Jackson interviews Robert Rodriguez, director of Hypnotic.
  
• Germain Lussier ranks all of Robert Rodriguez' SFF movies.
  

 

Comments on the strike of the Writers Guild of America:

• Joe Otterson reports that season 2 of The Last of Us is now completely on hold due to the WGA strike, after producers attempted to hold auditions by having actors read lines from the videogame the show is based upon.
• Nellie Andreeva reports that production of season 4 of The Mandalorian will be delayed due to the WGA strike. 
• Germain Lussier wonders what the WGA strike means for the other Star Wars shows in various states of production. 
• Linda Codega reports that the screen actors guild SAG-AFTRA may go on strike as well.

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2023 CrimeFest Awards have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2023 Colorado Book Awards have been announced.  
• The finalists for the 2023 Eurovision Book Contest have been announced.  
• The winners of the 2023 Bafta TV Awards have been announced with little love for crime TV.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Candice Fox explains why opening lines are so crucial.
• Kate White shares seven fabulous thrillers and the craft lessons they teach
• Kellie Doherty talks about worldbuilding. 
• William C. Tracey shares tips and tricks for selling your book on Amazon.
  
• Locus reports about a controversy surrounding the literary agency New Leaf Literary and Media. 
• Publishers Weekly also reports about the New Leaf Literary and Media uproar. 
  
• Max Booth III reports that the golden age of indie horror may be coming to an end, because Barnes & Noble no longer wants its stores to stock print-on-demand books. 
• Locus reports that Penguin Random House, PEN America as well as parents, authors and teachers are sueing the Escambia County school district in Florida over book bans.
  

 

Interviews: 

• Garrick Webster interviews James Wolff. 
• Matt Johnson and John Murray interviews each other. 
• Elise Dumpleton interviews Michelle Gagnon.
  
• Emma Brockes interviews Emma Cline.
  
• Anthony Cummins interviews Ottessa Moshfegh. 
• Ryan Shaffer interviews Tim Rodriguez.
  
• Eli Cranor interviews Josh Kendall.
  

Reviews:

• BOLO Books reviews All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby.
  
• Kevin Tipple reviews Hallowed Ground by Linda Castillo.
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews Murder in the Gallowgate by Daniel Sellers.
  
• Marlene Harris reviews Seven Girls Gone by Allison Brennan.
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan Turney.
• Mary Picken reviews Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen, translated by Megan Turney.
• Mandie Griffiths reviews The Dying Day by Vaseem Khan. 
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews The Twenty by Sam Holland. 
• Mary Picken reviews The Twenty by Sam Holland. 
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Clonk! by J.P. Rieger. 
  
• The Quick and the Read reviews The Detective by Ajay Chowdhury.
  
• Joy Kluver reviews The Last Passenger by Will Dean. 
• Mary Picken reviews The Last Passenger by Will Dean. 
• Jen Lucas reviews The End of the Game by Holly Watt. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Lying In The Deep by Diana Urban
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. 
• Paul Bruke reviews Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou.
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews The Man in the Corduroy Suit by James Wolff
  
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Between Two Strangers by Kate White
  
• Jen Lucas reviws The Fall by Gilly Macmillan. 
  
• Kathy Reel reviews Helpless by Annete Dashofy.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Rescue by T. Jefferson Parker.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Little White Lies by Margaret Fenton. 
• Garrick Webster reviews Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa, translated by Jacky Collins.
  
• The Quick and the Dead reviews The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley.
  
• Grab This Book reviews Bastard Verdict by James McCrone. 
• Marlene Harris reviews Tamam Shud by Kerry Greenwood.
  
• Beth Kanell reviews The Nightingale Affair by Tim Mason. 
• Marlene Harris reviews When Maidens Mourn by C.S. Harris.
  
• The Quick and the Read reviews The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Mastering The Art Of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Cinnamon Twisted by Ginger Bolton and tries a recipe from the book
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Mother of the Bride Murder by Leslie Meier
  
• Killian Fox reviews The Wager by David Grann. 
• Paperback Warrior reviews Steve Holland: Paperback Hero by Michael Stradford.
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1923 Hercule Poirot mystery The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie.
• Martin Wedwards revisits the 1929 Colonel Gore mystery The Mendip Mystery by Lynn Brock.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1936 mystery Murder on the Day of Judgment by Virginia Rath. 
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1972 hardboiled crime novel Dead Skip by Joe Gores.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1973 thriller Rampage by L.V. Roper.
  
• Robin Marx revisits the 1979 environmental thriller Killer by Peter Tonkin. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1983 hostage thriller The Mall by Steve Kahn.
  
• The Por Por Books Blog revisits the 1984 crime novel Bulman and its sequel Bulman 2 by Robert Holdstock. 
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1986 Reid Bennett mystery Fool's Gold by Ted Wood.
  

Con and event reports:

• Martin Edwards shares his experiences at the 2023 CrimeFest in Bristol, UK.
• Clare Brennan calls a stage adaptation of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, which is currently playing in Hull, UK, a stately adventure. 
  

 

Research: 

• Tim Davey talks about PTSD as well as approaches to support and recovery.
• Luke Taylor reports about the crackdown on gangs in El Salvador and how innocent people got caught up in it and ended up in squalid prisons. 
• Katie Spalding recounts how Arthur Conan Doyle was duped by some very obvious Victorian hoaxes.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

•  "Assassin's Bad Day" by William Burton McCormick in Guilty.
  
•  "Whack-A-Mole" by Merrilee Robson in Mystery Tribune.
• "House Warming" by Ella Ahrens in Shotgun Honey.
• "Hawk's Day in Court" by Peggy Landsman in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailer and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for series 8 of Grantchester.
• Watch a trailer for Extraction 2.
  
• Watch a trailer for Dark Winds. 
• Watch a trailer for Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1.