Crime Fiction Links of the Week for June 15, 2024

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 Criminal Minds Evolution, the new Presumed Innocent, Hotel Cocaine, the 2024 Capital Crime festival, the bankruptcy of the RWA, the investment firm Baillie Gifford pulling out of multiple UK literary festivals following pressure from activists and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week. 
• Alison Flood shares her favourite crime novels and thrillers of the month. 
• Molly Odintz shares the best international crime novels coming out in June.
  
• Joe Goldberg shares his favourite spy thrillers.
• John Copenhaver talks about LGBTQ crime fiction. 
• Joanne Jackson lists her favourite crime novels with children or elderly protagonists.
  
• Kimberly Belle talks about the lure of faraway places in crime fiction.
  
• Sarah Crouch explains why the US Pacific Northwest is the perfect setting for mysteries and crime fiction. 
• Carol Lahines shares her favourite jailhouse confessional novels. 
• Victoria Helen Stone shares her favourite books about conspiracy theories.
  
• Lori Brand talks about psychological thrillers which deal with body shaming and diet culture. 
• Madeline Claire Franklin explains that she's rather not write about sexual assault, but sadly the world still needs to hear it.
  
• Elaina Ellis explains why poets should read and write romance fiction. 
• Sandy Ferber revisits the Man From U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novels. 
  
• James Quealey remembers the magazine Thuglit and its impact on crime and noir fiction. 
  
• Hugh Wilford explains how Rudyard Kipling's 1901 adventure novel Kim helped to create modern espionage.
  
• Olivia Rutigliano shares a quiz to identify the opening lines of classic mystery and crime novels.
  
• John Maddox Roberts, author of science fiction, fantasy and historical mysteries, has died aged 76. 
  

 

Film and TV: 

• Cheryl Eddy declares that Longlegs will subvert all your serial-killer movie expectations
  
• Leslie Felperin calls Birthday Girl a superb drama about a rape aboard a cruise ship and praises the performance of Trine Dyrholm. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Hounds a pitch-black comedy drama about two hapless Moroccan dog-fighting hoodlums
  
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the series 2 finale of Blue Lights. 
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on Eric. 
• Simon Hattenstone calls Britain’s Forgotten Prisoners a devastating documentary
  
• Jack Seale calls  The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot an astonishing true-crime documentary marred by bad reconstructions of events.
  
• Jen Lennon and Jim Vorel list ten filmic hitmen who are very bad at their job. 
• Jacob Oller revisits the 1949 musical crime comedy Neptune's Daughter. 
• Kali Wallace revisits the 1965 dystopian noir film Alphaville. 
  
• J. Kingston Pierce revisits the 1984 TV crime movie Spraggue: Murder for Two.
• Jesse Pasternack revisits the 1993 animated film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and declares it the best of all the many Batman films. 
  
• Benjamin Lee revisits the 1994 action movie Speed for its thirtieth anniversary.
  
• Good Morning America interviews Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, stars of Only Murders in the Building. 
• David Brancaccio and Nic Perez report about the growth of the film industry in Georgia.
  
• Francisco Garcia remembers Dennis Potter, writer of Pennies From Heaven, The Singing Detective and many others.  
  
• David Brancaccio and Nic Perez report about the growth of the film industry in Georgia.
• Brennan Klein reports that Bad Boys: Ride or Die has had a strong opening weekend. 

 

Comments on Criminal Minds Evolution:

•  Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the season 2 premiere of Criminal Minds: Evolution.
• Ana Dumaroag notes that the season 2 premiere of Criminal Minds: Evolution achieved something that had seeed impossible in seventeen season of Criminal Minds and Criminal Minds: Evolution, namely make Penelope Garcia seem annoying. 
• Ana Dumaroag reports that actor Josh Stewart who plays Will LaMontaigne will leave Criminal Minds Evolution after having been a series regular since season 2 of the original Criminal Minds.
  

 

Comments on the new Presumed Innocent:

• Joel Golby calls the new Presumed Innocent a sluggish legal thriller and a remake no one wanted.
• Lucy Mangan calls the new Presumed Innocent a soulless and underwhelming legal thriller
• Saloni Gajjar calls the new Presumed Innocent a suspenseful, if generic, legal thriller
• Aramide Tinubu calls the new Presumed Innocent a brilliant adaptation.
  

Comments on Hotel Cocaine: 

• Meredith Hobbs Coons calls Hotel Cocaine a generic 1970s set drug drama that is as dumb as its title. 
• Melody McCune interviews Ernael Baez, one of the stars of Hotel Cocaine.
  

 

Awards:

• The shortlists for the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the 2024 McDermid Debut Award have been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2024 Lambda Literary Awards have been announced

 

Writing, publishing and promotion:

• Literary Hub asks six writers how they tackle writers block.
• Rob Hart explains why humor is one of the sharpest tools in a writer’s arsenal
  
• Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka talk about co-writing as a married couple. 
• Kellie Doherty explains how to make travel in fantasy more interesting. 
• Claire Pooley talks about the perils of writing dogs in fiction, particularly when they die.
  
• Victoria Strauss reports about a new scam targeting writers. 
• Neil Clarke explains how to stop the AI bots from scraping your website as "training data".
  
• Hillel Italie reports that Ursula K. Le Guin's former home in Portland, Oregon, will become a writers retreat. 
• Claire Moses and Elizabeth A. Harris report that sales of English language books are growing in Europe, which they try to frame as a bad thing. 
• Erum Salam reports that Ban This Book by Alan Gratz, a book about book bans, has indeed been banned in Indian River, Florida.
  
• Darren Lautsen reports how a father in Pennridge, Pennsylvania, discovered how a school board was secretly banning books and removing them from circulation.
  

 

Comments on the bankruptcy of the RWA:

• Brittany Allen discusses the bankruptcy of the RWA and what's next for romance writers.
• The Authors Guild shares a statement on the bankruptcy of the Romance Writers of America.

 

Interviews: 

• David Masciotra interviews James Lee Burke,
  
• Jenny Bartoy interviews Ruth Ware.
• The Red Hot Chilli Writers interview Jo Callaghan. 
• Marshal Zeringue interviews Catriona McPherson.
  
• Paul Burke interviews Ben Pastor.
  
  

Reviews:

• Kevin Tipple reviews First Frost by Craig Johnson
• The Quick and the Read reviews Taste of Blood by Lynda La Plante
• Lesa Holstine reviews Hope to Die by Cara Hunter 
• John Valeri reviews If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay
  
• Jen Lucas reviews This Is Why We Lied by Karin Slaughter 
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews The Serpent Dance by Sofia Slater
  
• BOLO Books reviews Bad Boy Beat by Clea Simon  
  
• Gayle Surrette reviews Bad Boy Beat by Clea Simon  
• Jen Lucas reviews Dark Trade by Helen H. Durrant 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews A Lovely Lie by Jamie Lynn Hendricks
  
• Mandie Griffiths reviews What We Did In The Storm by Tina Baker 
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews What Fire Brings by Rachel Howzell Hall
  
• BOLO Books reviews What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris.
• Jen Lucas reviews Know Me Now by C.J. Carver
  
• Blue Book Balloon reviews The Chamber by Will Dean
• Joy Kluver reviews The Chamber by Will Dean 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Goldilocks Genome by Elizabeth Reed Aden.
• Jen Lucas reviews The Betrayals by Fiona Neill  
• Mike Parker reviews Every Spy A Traitor by Alex Gerlis
  
• Ryan Steck reviews Red Sky Mourning by Jack Carr  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews Banners Of Hell by Paul Doherty
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Mud Season by Susan Stewart Taylor 
• Aunt Agatha's reviews A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber. 
• Lis Carey reviews The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older    
• Camestros Felapton reviews The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older    
  
• Colleen Mondor reviews The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles by Malka Older   
  
• Aunt Agatha's reviews A Collection of Lies by Connie Berry. 
• Crossexamining Crime reviews A Lurking Primrose by Suzette A. Hill  
• Mike Ripley reviews A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker 
  
• Janet Webb reviews Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack 
• Jen Lucas reviews The Darkroom: Case Files of a Scotland Yard Forensic Photographer by A.J. Hewitt
   
  

Classics reviews:

• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1936 mystery The Desert Lake Mystery by Kay Cleaver Strahan
  
• Joe R. Lansdale and Polly Stewart revisit the 1940 southern noir novel They Don't Dance Much by James Ross.
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1952 Cheviot Burmann mystery Next-Door To Death by Belton Cobb 
  
• Dave Bradley revisits the 1962 gothic suspense novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
• Joe Kenney revisits the 1979 thriller Phone Call by Jon Messman.
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 2010 Mr. Monk mystery Mr Monk is Cleaned Out by Lee Goldberg
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Joy Kluver reports about the "Anatomy of a Crime" panel at the 2024 Capital Crime festival in London, UK.
• Joy Kluver reports about the "Sins of the Past" historical mystery panel at the 2024 Capital Crime festival in London, UK. 
• Joy Kluver reports about the Argylle panel, featuring Tammy Cohen and Terry Hayes a.k.a. Elly Conway, at the 2024 Capital Crime festival in London, UK.
• Martin Edwards reports about the 2024 Alibis in the Archives crime fiction event at Gladstone's Library in Hawarden, Wales. 
• Lucy Knight reports that the pressure group Fossil Free Books, which pressured several UK literary festivals into rejecting sponsoring by the investment firm Baillie Gifford, claims that this is not the outcome they wanted.   
• The Observer notes that British literary festivals will have more difficulties finding sponsors, after pressure groups forced festvals to reject sponsoring by the investment firm Baillie Gifford. 
  

 

Research: 

• Steve Berry and Grant Blackwood profile Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB officer and double agent, who helped to defuse nuclear tensions between Soviets and the West in 1983.
• Ed Simon profiles Charles Fort.

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Rockaway Beach" by Nick Kolakowski in Tough.
• "Scarecrows" by Steve Rasnic Tem in Tough.
  
• "Ricochet" by Woody Strassner in Guilty. 
  
• "Murder Eyes" by Jesse Hilson in Punk Noir Magazine
• "Before and After the Collection Plate" by Stuart Watson in Punk Noir Magazine 
  
• "Deadly Silence" by Jody Wenner in Punk Noir Magazine 
  
• "Six Lean Pork Chops" by Wayne F. Burke in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "The Black Filth under my Nails" by Eric Richer in Punk Noir Magazine 
• "Gotta Getta Gurl" by Steven Sheil in Punk Noir Magazine 
• "All That Raylene Business" by C.W. Blackwell in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Best Defense" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
  

 

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for season 4 of Only Murders in the Building.
• Watch a trailer for Birthday Girl.