Crime Fiction Links of the Week for June 17, 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 Extraction 2, season 6 of Black Mirror, Silo, the ongoing WGA strike, the debate about AI writing and art programs, the Reddit blackout, tributes to Cormac McCarthy and Treat Williams 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, 
• Molly Odintz lists Latinx horror and crime fiction to check out in 2023.
  
• Sian Gilbert talks about female friendships in crime novels and thrillers. 
• Robyn Harding talks about unlikely friendships in crime fiction.
  
• Wendy Heard shares six great thrillers about adventurers, Bohemians, nomads, runaways and other modern rebels
• Danielle Trussoni shares five thrillers about relics and ancient discoveries. 
• Una Mannion shares her ten favourite books about missing persons. 
• Elisa Schoenberger shares seven thrilling SFF murder mysteries. 
  
• Criminal Element shate their appreciation for the works of M.C. Beaton, 
• Alison Gaylin talks about continuing Robert B. Parker's Sunny Randall detective series.
  
• J. Kingston Pierce and Robert Deis share their appreciation for the work of crime and thriller cover artist Ron Lesser.
• Jeffrey Boakye wonders whether we should dismantle the literary canon.  
• Molly Templeton explains how she learned to stop worrying and ambrace the TBR pile. 
  
• The BBC reports that Scottish crime fiction writer Sir Ian Rankin has been knighted by Princess Anne.
  

 

Tributes to Cormac McCarthy:

• Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, Blood Meridian and No Country For Old Men, has died aged 89. 
• Wade Goodwyn remembers Cormac McCarthy. 
• Rob Doyle remembers Cormac McCarthy.
  
• The Guardian shares tribute to Cormac McCarthy from other writers. 
• Lincoln Michel shares his appreciation for the works of Cormac McCarthy.
  
• Locus remembers Cormac McCarthy. 
• Luke Buckmaster takes a look at the filmic adaptations of Cormac McCarthy's work.

 

Film and TV:

• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the latest episode of The Gallows Pole. 
• Cath Clarke calls Paradise Highway a stinker of a thriller that not even Morgan Freeman and Juliette Binoche can save.
  
• Phil Hoad calls Black Lotus a slapdash kickboxing thriller. 
• Daisy Jones wonders why smoking is making a comeback in movies and TV shows.  
  
• Rachel Leishman interviews the cast of High Desert.
• Xan Brooks interviews Bryan Cranston, star of Breaking Bad and Asteroid City.
  
• Michael Hogan interviews Rosamund Pike, star of Die Another Day, Gone Girl and People Who Knew Me. 
• Pedro Pascal, star of The Mandalorian and The Last of Us, and Steven Yuen, star of The Walking Dead and Beef, interview each other. 
  
• Claire Armitstead interviews Claire Denis, director of High Life and Stars at Noon.   
• Rachel Leishman points out that the ten year age difference between Tom Holland and Emmy Rossum who plays his mother in The Crowded Room isn't actually all that unusual in movies, especially since Rossum's character became pregnant at sixteen. 
  
• Vanessa Thorpe reports that Joseph Fiennes, star of The Handmaid's Tale and Shakespeare in Love, has revealed that Harvey Weinstein tried to bully him into compliance. 
• Jim Cornelius remembers the late actor Ray Stevenson.
  
• Actor Mike Batayeh, who appeared in Breaking Bad, CSI: Miami, X-Men: Days of Future Past and many others, has died aged 52.
  
• Actor and producer Paul Eckstein, who appeared in Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and co-created Godfather of Harlem, has died aged 59.
• Mexican voice actor Rubén Moya, who voiced He-Man among many other iconic characters, has died aged 62.
  

 

Tributes to Treat Williams:

• Actor Treat Williams, who appeared in Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America, Dead Heat, Things To Do in Denver When You're Dead, Blue Bloods, The Phantom, Deep Rising, Chicago Fire, Everwood and many others, has died following a motorcycle crash aged 71
• Ryan Gilbey shares an obituary for Treat Williams.
• Nick Caruso shares Taylor Kinney's tribute to Treat Williams, who played his father in Chicago Fire.

 

Comments on Extraction 2: 

• Andy Klein calls Extraction 2 another non-stop action fest.
  
• Peter Bradshaw calls Extraction 2 an action move sequel mostly interested in extracting cash.

 

Comments on season 6 of Black Mirror:

• Lucy Mangan calls season 6 of Black Mirror a perversely prescient dystopia.
• Cheryl Eddy lists ten lessons Black Mirror has taught the world so far. 

 

 Comments on Silo: 

• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Silo. 
• Molly Templeton reports that Silo has been renewed for a second season.

 

Comments on the strike of the Writers Guild of America:

• Brian Welk explains the state of the negotiations of the actors guild SAG-AFTRA and the likelihood of a strike.
• Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due weigh in on the WGA strike. 
• Elsa Keslassy, K.J. Yossman and Manori Ravindran report about marches in support of the WGA strike around the world.   
  
• Germain Lussier reports that Daredevil: Born Again and The Penguin are stopping production due to the WGA strike.

 

Awards:

• The shortlist for the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year has been announced and is open for voting.
  
• The finalists for the 2023 Shamus Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2023 Colorado Book Awards have been announced. 
  
• The winners of the 2023 Lambda Literary Awards have been announced.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Siena Sterling reports how being wrongfully accused of plagiarism at age ten helped her become a writer. 
• Kristine Kathryn Rusch talks about how changes to the distribution system affect writers and the publishing industry.
  
• Editor Rob Carroll has announced that Dark Matter Magazine is closing.
• The Washington Post speaks out against retroactive edits of older books to update them for modern sensibilities.
  
• Peter Walker reports that author Sathnam Sanghera has stopped doing public events because he's experiencing abuse over his book Empireland.
• Sarah Shaffi reports that Elizabeth Gilbert has pulled her new novel The Snow Forest from publication following a backlash because the novel is set in Russia in Soviet times, which makes it somehow offensive to Ukrainians. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reports that Elizabeth Gilbert's decision was the result of a review bombing of the still unreleased The Snow Forest on Goodreads
  

 

Comments on the AI controversy: 

• Linda Codega points out that scraping AO3 and other fanfiction site to create the Large Language Models that are the basis of AI writing tools like ChatGPT is a gross violation of the norms of fanfiction culture.
• Carl Franzen notes that as AI-generated content proliferates on the internet, AI programs may eventually collapse due to a feedback loop to no one's regret. 
• The SFWA has issued a statement on the use of AI. 
• Kevin Hurler reports that Google has ordered its employees not to enter sensitive data into its own AI chatbot Bard.
  
• Technomancer.ai reports that Japan has decided that copyright laws do not protect works from being used as AI training data.

 

Interviews: 

• Paul Burke interviews Åsa Larsson and Frank Perry.
• Criminal Element interviews Nora Murphy.
• Garrick Webster interviews Michael Katz Krefeld.
  
• Rob Hart interviews Craig Clevenger. 
• Liz Lawson and Kathleen Glasgow interview each other. 
• Grace Topping interviews Linda Norlander.
  
• Tim Adams interviews James Comey, former FBI director turned thriller author.
  

Reviews:

• Stephen King reviews All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby.
  
• Mary Picken reviews All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby.
• Lesa Holstine reviews Flesh and Blood by David Mark. 
  
• Mary Picken reviews Flesh and Blood by David Mark. 
• Kevin Tipple reviews The Last Remains by Elly Griffiths. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Adrift by Lisa Brideau
• Garrick Webster reviews Killing Moon by Jo Nesbo, translated by Sean Kinsella. 
  
• Jen Lucas reviews The Silence by Katerina Diamond. 
• Jen Lucas reviews Conviction by Jack Jordan. 
• Mike Parker reviews Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt. 
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Code of the Hills by Chris Offutt. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Back to the Dirt by Frank Bill
  
• Paul Burke reviews To Die in June by Alan Parks.
  
• Heather Fitt reviews Unsolved by Heather Critchlow.
  
• Jeff Ayers reviews Dead Drop by M.P. Woodward
  
• Gayle Surrette reviews The Last Door by Sheila Lowe.
• Jen Lucas reviews Welcome to Cooper by Tariq Ashkanani.
• Sandra Mangan reviews An Afterlife for Rosemary Lamb by Louise Wolhuter
  
• Grab This Book reviews The Woman in Carriage 3 by Alison James. 
• Mary Picken reviews The People Watcher by Sam Lloyd.
• Sharon Richardson reviews The Whispers by Ashley Audrain
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Body in the Web by Katherine Hall Page. 
  
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Mania by L.J. Ross.
• Jeff Ayers reviews Central Park West by James Comey
  
• Mary Picken reviews The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell. 
• Jon Morgan reviews The Devil's Playground by Craig Russell. 
  
• Marlene Harris reviews The Isolated Seance by Jeri Westerson. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Isolated Seance by Jeri Westerson.  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews After The Exhibition by Dolores Gordon-Smith
  
• Jen Lucas reviews A Fatal Crossing by Tom Hindle.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Diva Delivers on a Promise by Krista Davis
  
• Gayle Surrette reviews Lemon Curd Killer by Laura Childs.
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Crossexamning Crime revisits the 1931 mystery Dead Man Inside by Vincent Starrett. 
• Happiness Is a Book revisits the 1932 mystery Two & Two Make Twenty-Two by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning.
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1948 suspense novel Voice Out Of Darkness by Ursula Curtiss.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1951 Rex Brandt adventure novel Death Warriors by Denis Hughes a.k.a. Marco Garan.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1959 crime novel Strike for a Kingdom by Menna Gallie.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1960 spy novel Spy Hunt by Norman Daniels a.k.a. Norman Danberg.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1984 war novel Winter's Coming, Winter's Gone a.k.a. The Winter Marines by Allen Glick.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1988 mystery The Mill House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, translated by Ho-Ling Wong. 
• Alan Brown revisits the 1991 adventure novel Indiana Jones and the Peril at Delphi by Rob McGregor.  

Con and event reports:

• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reports about the 2023 Alibis in the Archives crime fiction event in Hawarden, Wales.
• Martin Edwards also shares his experiences at the 2023 Alibis in the Archives festival.
  
• The Red Hot Chilli Writers report about the MOTIVE Crime & Mystery Festival in Toronto, Canada.
  
• Grab This Book shares the program for the Bloody Scotland crime writing festival in Stirling, Scotland.
• Dominique Jeannerod shares the program for the conference Crime Fiction and Democracy at the Université Paris Nanterre in Nanterre, France.
  

 

Crowdfunding:

• Murder, Death, Kill!, a science fiction action comic by Jim Hanna and Mike Macropoulos, is looking for funding, 
• Deadball: Masters of the Game, an expansion for a tabletop baseball simulation game, is looking for funding.

 

Research: 

• Isabella Maldonado attempts to explain what goes on inside the mind of a killer.
  
• Tobi Thomas reports that a woman was sentenced to two years in jail because she had an abortion over the term limit in the UK.
• Dhruv Mehrotra reports that a court ordered an surveillance app named Covenant Eyes installed on all phones and computers of a family as part of probation conditions and that the father had his probation revoked due to a glitch.
• Scott C. Johnson talks about someone impersonating Hollywood producer Amy Pascal and the private investigator who cracked the case.
  
• Julia Heaberlin talks about conspiracy theories that are at least somewhat believable.
• Gretchen Eberhart Cherington talks about corruption in the Minnesota meat industry in the early twentieth century. 
  
  

Comments on the Reddit blackout:

• Matt Binder reports why the high prices for access to Twitter and Reddit's API are bad news for internet users. 
• Luke Plunkett reports about the Reddit blackout to protest unpopular changes to Reddit's API policy. 
• Kevin Hurler also reports about the Reddit blackout. 
• Miles Sato and Jay Peters report about a leaked memo from the CEO of Reddit assuming that the outrage over Reddit's API plans would pass. 
• Jody Serrano reports that many subreddits are planning an indefinite blackout in response to the leaked memo.

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Hill Murder" by Jan Stinchcomb in Shotgun Honey.
• "That’s Why They Have Fences" by J.M. Taylor in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Strange Disappearance of Elizabeth Wright" by Albert N. Katz in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Less Popular Crimes" by S.B. Watson in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "One Truffle Too Many" by Robert Jeschonek in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Bench" by Elena E. Smith in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Birds Aren't Real" by Zakariah Johnson in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Sunday, November 24th, 1963" by Bam Barrow in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Crazy Conspiracy Corey" by Robert Petyo in Punik Noir Magazine.
  
• "Evil Days and Ways" by Jack Brown in Mystery Tribune.
  
• "L" by David Berger in Mystery Tribune.
• "Lewenda Gets Married" by Francelia Belton in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast-
• "B&E" by Melodie Bolt in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailer and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for Sympathy for the Devil.