Crime Fiction Links of the Week for August 26, 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 season 3 of Only Murders in the Building, Sound of Freedom, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the debate about AI-generated writing and art, a debate about movie reviews on TikTok and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Criminal Element shares new cozy mysteries coming out this fall.
• Crime Reads shares the best debut crime novels coming out this August.
  
• Peter Handel shares his favourite modern spy fiction writers. 
• Kim Sherwood shares her ten favourite female spies in fiction. 
• Christopher Swann talks about powerful female characters in crime fiction.
  
• Gytha Lodge talks about serial killers in fiction and non-fiction.
  
• Mindy Quigley shares seven mystery series where book 2 is even better than book 1. 
• Katherine Greene explains how superstition and folk traditions can enhance thriller storytelling.
  
• Paul French takes a look at mystery novels set in Penang, Malaysia. 
• James Davis Nicoll explains why he likes reading older books.  
• James Davis Nicoll also explains why he likes reading newer books. 
  
• Randee Dawn shares six books that are difficult to impossible to read. 
• Karen Pierce talks about food in the mysteries of Agatha Christie.
  
• Randal S. Brandt profiles 1940s mystery writer Lange Lewis.   
• Harlem World profiles pioneering black physician and crime fiction writer Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher.
  
• Louise Hare shares five books that inspired her new crime novel Harlem After Midnight
  
• Zoe Williams reports about the extreme success of romance writer Colleen Hoover. 
• Josh Cook discusses how value judgments about good and bad literature, movies, etc... have been weaponised by cultural authoritarians.

 

Film and TV:

• Lucy Mangan calls The Confessions of Frannie Langton a superbly multifaceted gothic thriller 
• Adam Fleet calls Safe an enjoyably uncomplictaed action film. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Mob Land a blood-soaked punchy thriller. 
• Luke Y. Thompson calls Retribution a fun but derivative thriller.
  
• Lucy Mangan calls Who Is Erin Carter? a deadly dull mystery drama full of clichés.
  
• Cath Clarke calls The Dive an adrenaline-filled survival thriller with a weak backstory.
  
• Noetta Harjo shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Dark Winds. 
• Saloni Gajjar shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Reservation Dogs.
  
• Garrick Webster looks ahead at season 3 of Van der Valk. 
• Sarah Catherall looks ahead at season 2 of the beloved gay pirate show Our Flag Means Death. 
  
• Lucy Mangan calls The Man Who Stole The Scream a thought-provoking look at an audacious art heist
• Rebecca Nicholson calls Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn a twisty true crime documentary.
• Rachel Aroesti calls London Bridge: Facing Terror a documentary that asks us to cast off lazy assumptions about killers
• Drew Gillis revisits the 1962 James Bond movie Dr. No. 
  
• Jason Sacks revisits the 1968 mass shooting film Targets.
• Peter Bradshaw revisits the 2001 police corruption film Training Day. 
• Keith Roysdon praises three lesser known crime movies by the late William Friedkin.
  
• Danielle Pergament interviews Charlize Theron, star of The Old Guard, Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde and many others.   
• Yunte Huang profiles early Asian American film star Anna May Wong and the Chinatown noir genre. 
• Arturo Serrano weighs in on the debate about movie reviews on TikTok. 
  
• Kelly Garrity reports that Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis wants to move on from his legal battle with Disney over homophobic and transphobic laws in Florida. 
• Ron Cephas Jones, who appeared in Luke Cage, Mr. Robot, This Is Us and many others, has died aged 66. 
  

 

Comments on season 3 of Only Murders in the Building: 

• Saloni Gajjar shares her thoughts on "The White Room", the latest episode of Only Murders in the Building.
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on "The White Room".
  

 

Comments on Sound of Freedom: 

• Steve Rose explains how rightwing culture war rhetoric turned the Christian thriller Sound of Freedom into an unlikely box office hit. 
• Tatiana Siegel reports about rights issues regarding a potential sequel to Sound of Freedom.
  

 

Comments on the Movie Tok debate:

• Reggie Ugwu reports about the phenomenon of TikTok movie reviews. 
• Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reports about a backlash against Reggie Ugwu's article for comparing TikTok influencers paid to promote movies to serious movie critics. 
• Arturo Serrano weighs in on the debate about movie reviews on TikTok. 
• Matt Goldberg talks about movie reviews on TikTok and the cost of credibility.
  
• Dustin Rowles points out that TikTok movie reviewers are often paid by the studios to promote their films.

 

Comments on the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike:

• Linda Codega shares some key takeaways from the WGA's report about the "big three" streaming services Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus. 
• Linda Codega reports that negotiations between WGA and the studios have broken down again. 
  
• Pamela McClintock reports that studio bosses are blaming movies underperforming at the box office on actors being unable to promote their movies due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. 
• Justin Carter notes that if the studios claim to be losing money due to actors being unabke to promote movies, they should maybe reenter negotiations with SAG-AFTRA and WGA. 
• Tilda Wilson reports that the economic impact of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes is being felt well beyond Hollywood in places like Montana or Georgia, where a lot of movies and TV shows are being filmed. 
• Adrian Horton discusses how artificial intelligence jobs will affect Hollywood. 
  
• Daisy Schofield reports that inspired by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, cast members on reality shows are fighting to unionise as well.

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2022 Silver Falchion Awards havee been announced.
  
• The winner of the 2023 David Thompson Special Service Award has been announced.
• The winners of the 2023 Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers Prize has been announced.
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Molly Templeton talks about the connection between walking, writing and reading.
  
• Laurie Cass asks when it's time to stop writing.
  
• Francis Hamit shares tips for book signings. 
• Mike Glyer reports that SFWA has updated its membership requirements.
  
• Camestros Felapton reports that The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is embroiled in another scandal.
  
• German crime and mystery publisher Hejo Emons has died aged 73.
  

 

Comments on the AI controversy: 

• Alex Reisner reports that more than 170000 books, including many by prominent authors, have been fed into the "book3" corpus used to train AI large language models. 
• Ella Creamer also reports about the "book3" corpus. 
• Kyle Barr reports that the anti piracy group Rights Alliance has managed to get the "books3" dataset taken down. 
  
• Sharon Goldman reports that generative AI datasets could face a reckoning, since they use copyrighted work without permission.
  
• Joshua Hawkins reports that OpenAI may have to wipe ChatGPT and the data it's based upon. 
• Bobby Allyn reports that the New York Times is considering sueing OpenAI for illegally scraping the archives. 
• Avram Pitch reports that Google is trying to persuade Australian courts that its scraping of websites and texts is fair use.
  
• Scott Rosenberg reports that a glut of AI generated books is hitting online bookstores.
• The New York Times reports about a glut of AI generated travel guides flooding Amazon. 
• Christianna Silva reports that a US federal judge has ruled that AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted. 
• Mack DeGeurin reports that content farms are using AI chatbots to plagiarise news articles.

 

Interviews: 

• Eli Cranor interviews Danya Kukafka.
  
• The Red Hot Chili Writers interview Simon Toyne. 
• The Guardian interviews Bret Easton Ellis.
  
• Paul Burke interviews Graham Hurley.
• Martin Doyle interviews Andrea Carter.
  
• It Was a Dark and Stormy Book Club interviews John Glatt. 
• E.B. Davis interviews Barbara Ross
  
• Lisa Haselton interviews Charlene Bell Dietz.
  

Reviews:

• The Quick and the Read reviews The Second Murderer by Denise Mina. 
• Mary Picken reviews The Trap by Catherine Ryan Howard 
• Sharon Richardson reviews Evergreen by Naomi Hirahara
  
• Raven Crime Read reviews Black Fell by Mari Hannah.
• Jen Lucas reviews Marina Bay Sins by Neil Humprheys
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Fadeaway Joe by Hugh Lessing.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McAllister.
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Someone Like Her by Awais Khan 
• Mary Picken reviews Someone Like Her by Awais Khan 
• Jen Lucas reviews To Die For by Lisa Gray
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews Her, Too by Bonnie Kistler. 
• Jen Lucas reviews Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen, translated by by Don Bartlett
  
• John Self reviews The Wolf Hunt by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
• Yagnishsing Dawoor reviews No One Dies Yet by Kobby Ben Ben 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews How Can I Help You by Laura Sims
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Come With Me by Erin Flanagan
  
• The Quick and the Read reviews The Good Liars by Anita Frank
• Martin Edwards reviews The October List by Jeffery Deaver.
  
• BOLO Books reviews Reykjavík by Ragnar Jónasson and Katrín Jakobsdóttir
  
• Marlene Harris reviews Where the Dead Lie by C.S. Harris
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews Three Card Murder by J.L. Blackhurst. 
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes
  
• Sonja van der Westhuizen reviews The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf by Älexander McCall Smith
• Lesa Holstine reviews Halloween Cupcake Murder by Carlene O’Connor, Liz Ireland and Carol J. Perry
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Murder at the Pumpkin Pageant by Darci Hannah and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Body in the Back Garden by Mark Waddell 
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Mystery At Dunvegan Castle by T L Huchu 
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Bridge by Lauren Beukes  
• Adam Roberts reviews Prophet by Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché
  
• The Quick and the Read reviews Grave Suspicions by Alice James 
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Grave Suspicions by Alice James 
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Andrew Edwards revisits the 1915 Italian mystery The Modern Sinner by Caroline Invernizio, translated by Andrew Edwards.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1933 mystery An Oxford Tragedy by J.C. Masterman. 
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1937 Mr. Pinkerton mystery The Black Envelope a.k.a The Guilt Is Plain by David Frome a.k.a. Zenith Jones Brown
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1942 mystery The Alarm Of The Black Cat by Dolores Hitchens
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1943 Duncan Maclain mystery Blind Man’s Bluff  by Baynard Kendrick 
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1946 mystery He Who Whispers by John Dickson Carr.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1947 mystery Let X Be the Murderer by Clifford Witting. 
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1949 gothic suspense novel House of Storm by Mignon G. Eberhart.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1952 mystery My Name is Michael Sibley by John Bingham
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1953 noir story "Do You Know Me?" by Bruce Elliott.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1956 noir novel Ruby by Frederick Lorenz a.k.a. Lorenz F. Heller. 
• Paperbach Warrior revisits the 1958 crime novel Gang Rumble by Edward Ronns a.k.a. Edward S. Aarons. 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1977 mystery The Schoolmaster by W.J. Burley.
  
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1997 87th Precinct police procedural Nocturne by Ed McBain.
  
• Steven Nester revisits the 2003 historical crime novel White Rabbit by David Daniel.
  

Con and event reports:

• Mary Picken looks ahead at the Bloody Scotland crime fiction festival in Stirling, Scotland.
  

 

Research: 

• Lisa Black talks about her background in forensic investigative techniques. 
• Julie Miller interviews Margy Palm who was abducted by serial killer Stephen Morin outside a K-Mart in 1981 and helped to bring him to justice. 
• Tara Cobham and Bevan Hurley report about a mysterious case of mushroom poisoning in Australia.
  
• Tina Burnside reports that a man has been indicted for stealing the ruby slipper from The Wizard of Oz from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. 
• Andrea Langford talks about a hiker who vanished on the Pacific Coast Trail in 2015. 
• Loren Kleinman talks about the effects of gun violence on survivors.
  
• Catherine Steadman talks about the roots of popular holiday traditions.
  
  

Free online fiction: 

• "Opportunity Flats" by Ed Teja in Mystery Tribune.
• "The Wages of Sin" by Janet Innes in Mystery Tribune.
• "A Longing For Luxury" by David Hagerty in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Loot Box" by Sean Melrose-Aukema in Punk Noir Magazine 
• "The Listening Game" by Edward Barnfield in Punk Noir Magazine.
• "The Worth of an Ear" by Patrick Whitehurst in Punk Noir Magazine. 
• "Nowhere, Going Somewhere Else" by Stephen D. Rogers in Tough.
  
• "Maybe I Love You" ny M.E. Proctor in Shotgun Honey. 
• "Pele’s Prerogative (Part Four)" by Albert Tucher in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Beano" by Floyd Sullivan in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine's Podcast 
• "The Crowbar" by Tom Barlow in The Five-Two.
  

 

Trailer and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for season 3 of Van der Valk.
• Watch a trailer for Anatomy of a Fall.