Crime Fiction Links of the Week for September 28, 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 Ludwig, season 4 of Slow Horses, season 4 of Only Murders in the Building, the new Matlock, Murder in a Small Town, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, The Penguin, Lost at twenty, tributes to Maggie Smith and much more:

Crime fiction in general:  

• Crime Reads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week.  
• Crime Reads shares the best reviewed crime novels for September 2024.
  
• Crossexamining Crime shares twelve inverted mysteries to try. 
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite new psychological thrillers 
  
• Stephanie Wrobel shares thrillers and horror novels set in hotels.
  
• Martin Walker shares his favourite food descriptions from classic mysteries.
  
• Jeffrey Archer shares his ten favourite Agatha Christie books.
• Ashley Lawson finds unexpected parallels between the works of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith and Leigh Brackett.  
• Curtis Evans profiles Nigel Morland. 
• Molly Templeton praises books that are just plain good. 
  

  

Film and TV: 

• Nathan Rubin calls Argylle an overplotted spy story. 
  
• Jacob Oller declares that Wolfs almost seems like a parody of a lot of things: fixer thrillers, money-burning Apple Originals, Brad Pitt and George Clooney cinematic bro-outs 
• Benjamin Lee calls Killer Heat an overcooked and deathly dull Jo Nesbø adaptation
  
• Catherine Bray calls Unit 234: The Lock Up a fun thriller 
• Saloni Gajjar shares her thoughts on the season 8 premiere of 9-1-1 which unleashes a swarm of killer bees on Los Angeles. 
  
• Jack Seale calls Small Town, Big Riot a jaw-dropping documentary that says the unsayable  
• Andrew Nette shares his ten favourite films about revolutions and political violence. 
• Stuart Heritage discusses how the joy in streaming TV died.
  
• Victoria Silverwolf revisits the 1969 crime movie What Ever Happened To Aunt Alice?  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1981 spy thriller The Eye of the Needle.
• Jesse Hassenger revisits the 1999 thriller Double Jeopardy.
  
• Justin Carter looks back on the 2014 superhero crime drama Gotham.  
• Aaron Jones revisits the 2019 supervillain movie Joker.
   

Comments on Ludwig:

• Joel Golby calls Ludwig a hilarious detective drama.
• Lucy Mangan calls Ludwig an enjoyably gentle crime drama.
  

Comments on season 4 of Slow Horses: 

• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the second and third episodes of season 4 of Slow Horses.
• Diana Keng shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Slow Horses. 
  
• Shane Whaley interviews Gary Oldman who plays Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses.
  

 Comments on season 4 of Only Murders in the Building: 

• Saloni Gajjar shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Only Murders in the Building. 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Only Murders in the Building.  
• Jay Snow declares that season 4 of Only Murders in the Building is finally doing right by Mabel Mora.
  

 

Comments on the new Matlock:

• Terry Terrones calls the new Matlock a brilliant twist on a classic TV series
  
• Jarrod Jones asks people not to underestimate the surprisingly sharp Matlock reboot

 

Comments on Murder in a Small Town: 

• Devan Suber calls Murder In A Small Town a decidedly cozy police procedural 
• Rory Doherty calls Murder in a Small Town a familiarly cozy Canadian mystery
  

 

Comments on Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and The Menedez Brothers:

• Jesse Hassenger calls Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story an exhausting and overlong true crime story.
• Rance Collins interviews cast and crew of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.
  
• Zack Sharf shares the responses of the real Lyle and Erik Menendez to the true crime drama about their lives and to being referred to as "monsters". 
• Zack Sharf reports that the Menendez broithers and their entire extended family detest Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. 
• Mark Malkin reports that Ryan Murphy, showrunner of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story believes that his exploitative show is the best thing that has happened to the Menendez brothers in thirty years.
  
• Watch a trailer for the documentary The Menendez Brothers.
  

 

Comments on The Penguin: 

• Keith R.A. DeCandido shares his thoughts on "After Hours", the first episode of The Penguin.
• Lucy Mangan calls The Penguin a powerful Batman spin-off. 
• Terry Terrones calls The Penguin DC’s answer to The Sopranos
• Diego Ramon Bechara interviews Colin Powell who plays Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. the Penguin in The Penguin. 
  
• Ray Flook reports that the New York Times included an edition of The Gotham Gazette intended to promote The Penguin. 
• Timothy Adams reports about several events intended to promote The Penguin in New York City.
  

 

Lost at 20:

• Stanley Bucksbaum and Wesley Stenzel revisit the 2004 disaster show Lost and share their ten favourite episodes. 
  
• Dalton Ross shares a defence of the controversial Lost finale.

 

Tributes to Maggie Smith:

• Dame Maggie Smith, star of Gosford Park, the Harry Potter movies, Downton Abbey, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Sister Act, Hook, Room With a View, Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, Murder by Death and many others, has died aged 89.
  
• Peter Bradshaw remembers Maggie Smith.
• Nicholas Hytner remembers Maggie Smith. 
• Mark Lawson remembers Maggie Smith. 
• Mike Newell remembers Maggie Smith. 
• Ol Parker remembers Maggie Smith. 
• Mary Kate Carr remembers Maggie Smith.
  
• Michael Coveney shares an obituary for Maggie Smith. 
• Olivia Rutigliano remembers Maggie Smith's roles in crime movies and murder mysteries.
  
• Peter Bradshaw ranks his twenty favourite of Maggie Smith's many movies.
  
• The Guardian shares photos from Maggie Smith's lengthy career.

 

Awards:

• The winners of the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards have been announced.
• The winner of the 2024 Crime Cologne Award has been announced.
• The winner of the 2024 Booksellers' Association Author of the Year Award has been announced. 
  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Linda Huang explains why artificial intelligence can't replace human creativity.
• Victoria Strauss warns about a social media marketing scam targeting authors. 
• Claire Kirch reports about the problems of the publisher TouchPoint Press. 
• Thad McIlroy and Jim Milliot report that forty percent of publishing jobs disappeared over the past thirty years and wonder why.
  
• Paul Blumenthal discusses how the copyright lawsuit of the Big Five publishers versus the Internet Archive exposes ethical issues inside the US Supreme Court.  
• Elizabeth Harris reports how new laws in several US states are fuelling book bans.
  
• Mike Glyer reports about the most challenged and banned books in the US.

 

Interviews: 

• Craig Sisterson interviews Attica Locke.
  
• Nancie Clare interviews Taylor Moore.
• Alan Petersen interviews David Ellis. 
• Debbi Mack interviews Tom Fowler. 
• Morgan Leigh Davis interviews Elyse Graham.
  

 

Reviews:

• Blue Book Balloon reviews The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia   
• Jen Lucas reviews One Of Us Is Dead by Peter James 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews You Will Never Be Me by Jesse Q. Sutanto
  
• Mary Picken reviews Living is a Problem by Doug Johnstone 
• Blue Book Balloon reviews Living is a Problem by Doug Johnstone  
• BOLO Books reviews I Dreamed of Falling by Julia Dahl.
• Jeff Ayers reviews I Dreamed of Falling by Julia Dahl.
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews Shades of Mercy by Bruce Borgos
• Jen Lucas reviews The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty
  
• Aunt Agatha's reviews The Usual Silence by Jenny Milchman. 
• BOLO Books reviews A Very Bad Thing by J.T. Ellison. 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Trials of Lila Dalton by L. J. Shepherd
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Trials of Marjorie Crowe by C. S. Robertson. 
• Mandie Griffiths reviews The Trial by Rob Rinder 
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Society of Lies by Lauren Ling Brown 
• Mandie Griffiths reviews The Associate by Victoria Goldman
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Someone You Know by Olivia Isaac Henry 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Divide by Morgan Richter
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards 
  
• Aunt Agatha's reviews Death of a Flying Nightingale by Laura Jensen Walker.
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Sherlock Holmes And The Telegram From Hell by Nicholas Meyer
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews A Killer Clue by Victoria Gilbert 
  
• Aunt Agatha's reviews What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley. 
• Aunt Agatha's reviews Murder at King’s Crossing by Andrea Penrose.
• Marlene Harris reviews The Sullivan’s Island Supper Club by Susan M. Boyer 
• Erin Britton reviews We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
  
• Crossexamining Crime reviews The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey 
  
• Aunt Agatha's reviews The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard. 
• In Search of the Classics Mystery Novel reviews One Bad Apple by Jo Jakeman
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews The Grim Steeper by Gretchen Rue
• Aunt Agatha's reviews Shear Terror by Dorothy Howell. 
• Lesa Holstine reviews Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year’s by Liz Ireland
  
• Runalong the Shelves reviews The Darkness In The Pines by David Green  
• Vanessa Armstrong reviews The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Six Stunning Sirens by Lynn Cahoon and tries a recipe from the book.
  
• BOLO Books reviews All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories by Leslie Budewitz. 
• Paul Burke reviews Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction, edited by Dan Coxon and Richard V. Hirst 
   
  

Classics reviews:

• Martin Edwards revisits the 1937 Sir Henry Merrivale mystery The Ten Teacups a.k.a. The Peacock Feather Murders by Carter Dickson a.k.a. John Dickson Carr
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1948 Jane and Dagobert Brown mystery She Shall Have Murder by Delano Ames
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1951 Anthony Bathurst mystery Where There Was Smoke by Brian Flynn
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1956 Simon Ark supernatural detective story "The Witch is Dead" by Edward D. Hoch. 
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1961 Sam Durell spy novel Assignment-Lowlands by Edward S. Aarons.
  
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1997 anthology The Best American Mystery Stories, edited by. Robert B. Parker 
  

 

Con and event reports:

• B.V. Lawson reports that the 2024 Sleuthfest in St. Petersburg, Florida, has been postponed.
• Stuart Heritage reports about a disappointing Bridgerton Ball experience in Detroit, Michigan. 
  

 

Research: 

• The Guardian reports that a boy who was abducted from a park in California in 1951 at the age of six was found alive on the US East Coast 73 years later. 
• Andrew Bridge shares his difficult experience in foster care in the US and how it led him to becoming a lawyer fighting for children in foster care.
• Michelle Chouinard talks about growing up in the crime ridden San Francisco of the 1970s and early 1980s.
  
• Sam Levin reports that Marcellus Williams has been executed in Missouri, even though there is no real evidence to tie him to the crime and both prosecutor and the victim's family believe him to be innocent.  
• Justin McCurry reports that Iwao Hakamada has been acquitted of a 1966 murder after spending 46 years on death row in Japan.
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Once" by Alan Orloff in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Kings of Emerald City" by John Von Rader in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "Second Chances" by Susan E. Rogers in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "The Puzzleman" by Philip Pak in Mystery Tribune.
• "Four Pieces of Evidence" by Pamela Ebel in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast.
  
• "Perfect Pieces" by Jay Butkowski in Tough.
  
• "Haircut" by Margaret Lucke in Guilty.
  

 

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer.
• Watch a trailer for Ballerina.