Crime Fiction Links of the Week for December 21, 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 the best crime books of 2024, season 3 of Dalgliesh, season 2 of Squid Game, Carry-On, No Good Deed and much more.
 

Crime fiction in general: 

• Paul French talks about crime novels set in Nashville, Tennessee
• Jen Marie Wiggins shares her favourite crime novels about important life moments and events going disastrously wrong.
  
• James Davis Nicoll shares five science fictional murder mysteries set in space.   
• Alex Kenner explains how misunderstandings can drive the plot in crime fiction.
  
• Molly Templeton talks about the art of buying books for other people.  
• Janet Rudolph reports that crime fiction writer Maureen Jennings has been appointed to the Order of Canada.
  

  

Best of 2024:

• Criminal Element share their favourite crime novels, mysteries and thrillers of 2024.
  
• Jamie Canaves shares her favourite mysteries, thrillers and true crime books of 2024. 
• Sharon Richardson shares her five favourite crime novels of 2024.
  
• Erin Britton shares her five favourite crime novels of 2024.
  
• Paul Burke shares his five favourite crime novels of 2024. 
• Bookreporter share their favourite crime novels of 2024. 
  
• Vicki Kondelik, Margaret Agnew and Carla Schantz share their favourite mysteries of 2024.
• Jeremy Black shares his favourite mysteries of 2024.
  
• Olivia Rutigliano shares her favourite traditional mysteries of 2024. 
• Shane Whaley shares his favourite spy novels of 2024. 
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite YA mystery, crime and horror novels.
  
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite SFF crime novels of 2024. 
• Olivia Rutigliano shares her favourite crime movies of 2024. 
• Crime Reads share their favourite true crime memoirs of 2024.
  

 

 Film and TV: 

• Rebecca Nicholson calls Slow Horses one of the five best TV shows of 2024.
  
• Jack Seale declares that it's hard to see why Strike: The Ink Black Heart exists 
• Paul Levinson calls The Agency a sharp spy series.
  
• Rory Doherty declares that Nickel Boys ushers in a new era of POV cinema
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the first episode of Dexter: Original Sin
• Paul Levinson shares his thoughts on the new The Day of the Jackal
  
• Anita Chaudhuri wonders why so many crime dramas feature women getting killed in horrible ways and why so many women are watching these shows. 
• Joy Press reports about the broken promises of Hollywood's attempts to be more inclusive.  
  
• Stuart Heritage wonders whether audience will accept British comedian Paul Chuckle playing a gangster in Fall to the Top.
  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1963 Francis Durbridge based suspense serial The Desperate People
  
• Chloe Walker revisits the 1972 thrillers The Screaming Woman and The Longest Night 
• Jesse Hassenger revisits the 1974 gangster movie The Godfather Part II
  
• Jim Vorel revisits the 1999 fantasy crime movie The Green Mile. 
  

 

Comments on season 3 of Dalgliesh: 

• Chris Jenkins shares his thoughts on episodes 3 and 4 of Dalgliesh. 
• Chris Jenkins shares his thoughts on episodes 5 and 6 of Dalgliesh. 
  

 

 Comments on Carry-On: 

• Jesse Hassenger calls Carry-On an entertaining thriller.
• Jim Vorel calls Carry-On a decent, but lightweight holiday thriller. 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Carry-On a misleadingly titled Netflix thriller
  

 

Comments on No Good Deed:

•  Rebecca Nicholson calls No Good Deed a twisty, binge-worthy mystery
• Saloni Gajjar declares that No Good Deed isn't worth the investment 
• Amy Amatangelo declares that the murder mystery turns No Good Deed into more than just a show about selling a house.
  

 

Comments on season 2 of Squid Game:

• Cheryl Eddy interviews Hwang Dong-hyuk, creator of Squid Game.
  
• Cheryl Eddy interviews Lee Jung-jae, star of Squid Game and The Acolyte. 
• Cheryl Eddy interviews the cast of series 2 of Squid Game.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• D.M. Rowell talks about rhythm in storytelling. 
• M.W. Craven talks about the difficulties of writing a novel set in the US as an English person. 
• Jane Corry shares her experience teaching writing in Wormwood Scrubs prison in London, UK.
  
• Olivia Snaije reports about the impact of the war with Israel on publishing in Lebanon.

 

Awards:

• The film nominations for the 2025 Critics Choice Awards have been announced. 
• The nominations for the 2025 London Critics’ Circle Awards have been announced.  
• The winners of the 2024 African American Film Critics Association Awards have been annouced.
• The finalists for the 2025 Costume Designer Guild Awards have been announced. 
• The shortlist for the 2025 BBC Audio Drama Awards has been announced. 

 

Interviews: 

• J. Kingston Pierce interviews Max Allan Collins.
• Peter Handel interviews Bonnie Kistler.
• Aunt Agatha's interviews Rob Osler. 
• James Queally interviews Tod Goldberg.
  
• Nancie Clare interviews Sharon Short. 
• Lisa Haselton interviews Penelops Holt. 
• Lisa Haselton interviews Michael Nelson a.k.a. Michael Deeze.
  
• The Cops and Writers Podcast interviews J.D. Barker and Christine Daigle
  

 

Reviews:

• Sonja van der Westhuizen reviews The Ice Retreat by Ruth Kelly 
• The Quick and the Read reviews The Killer in the Cold by Alex Pine 
• Pam Guynn reviews Locked In by Jussi Adler-Olsen 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Safecracker by Jesse DeRoy
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy
  
• Mary Picken reviews Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy
• Tzer Island reviews Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy
• The Bookish Elf reviews Deadbeat by Adam Hamdy
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Dead Sweet by Katrín Júlíusdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Drop Dead Sisters by Amelia Diane Coombs
  
• Jane Simon Ammeson reviews Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox.
  
• Aubrey Nye Hamilton reviews The Rivals by Jane Pek  
• Marilyn Brooks reviews Mirror Me by Lisa Williamson Rosenberg  
• Kirkus reviews Good Lieutenant by E.J. Cooperman. 
• Tzer Island reviews Invisible Helix by Keigo Higashino 
• Sandra Mangan reviews Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney
  
• Sonja van der Westhuizen reviews White City by Dominic Nolan
  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Madison Square Murders by C. S. Poe
  
• Grab This Book reviews Cut And Run by Alec Marsh  
• Fully Booked reviews Cut And Run by Alec Marsh  
• Ali Karim reviews The Rumor Game by Thomas Mullen 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Those Opulent Days by Jacquie Pham
  
• Adam Roberts reviews Polostan by Neal Stephenson 
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews The Three Deaths Of Justice Godfrey by L C Tyler 
  
• Lesa Holstine reviews Spirit of Steamboat by Craig Johnson
  
• Robin Agnew reviews The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler.
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel reviews The Antique Hunter’s Guide To Murder by C.L. Miller
  
• Doreen Sheridan reviews Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch
  
• Marlene Harris reviews Bayou Book Thief by Ellen Byron 
• Michelle Blanchard Ardillo reviews Booked for Murder by P. J. Nelson
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery reviews The Deaths Of December by S.J.I. Holliday  
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews I'll Be Home for Mischief by Jacqueline Frost
• Grave Tapping reviews Flint Kill Creek by Joyce Carol Oates 
  

 

Classics reviews:

• The Crime Segments revisits the 1908 vigilante novel Ghosts of Society by E. Phillips Oppenheim
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1927 Sexton Blake mystery The Affair of the Black Carol by Gwyn Evans  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1936 historical mystery The Murder Of Sir Edmund Godfrey by John Dickson Carr 
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1948 holiday mystery Dramatic Murder by Elizabeth Anthony 
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1949 mystery Bland Beginning by Julian Symons
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 1949 Rocky Rockwell mystery Do Not Murder Before Christmas by Jack Iams  
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1952 Inspector Thomas Littlejohn mystery Crime in Lepers’ Hollow by George Bellairs 
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1960 adventure novel Chartered Love by Conrad Dawn.
  
• Paperback Warrior revisits the 1962 Fred Fellows police procedural Born a Victim by Hillary Waugh. 
  
• Crossexamining Crime revisits the 2007 Agatha Raisin holiday mystery Kissing Christmas Goodbye by M. C. Beaton
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Gabriel San Román reports that Disney has agreed to a large settlement in a lawsuit about flaunting California minimum wage laws at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

 

Research: 

• Lilian West discusses how serial killers reveal the shocking truth about what seemingly ordinary people are capable of. 
• James T. Bartlett reports about a love triangle leading to murder involving Henry Pozner, who operated several Christmas tree lots in San Diego, California, his Margarette Pozner and his lover Verna Simons in 1950.
  
• Ashifa Kassam reports that a photo snapped by a Google Street View camera helped to solve a murder case in Spain.
  
• Rebecca Ratcliffe reports that Filipina Mary Jane Veloso, who was sentenced to death for drug smuggling in Indonesia, has been released after fifteen years in prison. 
  
• Henry Belot reports that the five surviving members of the so-called Bali Nine drug smuggling gang have been released after nineteen years in prison in Indonesia.
• Esther Addley reports that a pile of human bones found in a pit in Somerset, UK, belong to the victims of a massacre and cannibalism during the bronze age. 
• Margherita Bassi also reports about the bronze age massacre and cannibalism in Somerset and wonders what happened.

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Tree Lot, Late December" by Larry Menlove in Shotgun Honey.
• "All is Bright" by Chris Brady in Shotgun Honey.
  
• "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire — a Christmas Crime" by Marek Z. Turner in Punk Noir Magazine  
• "Santa with a Glock — a Christmas Crime" by Roy Dorman in Punk Noir Magazine 
  
• "Dashing Through the Blow — a Christmas Crime" by Craig Terlson in Punk Noir Magazine   
• "Christmas Miracles" by JoAnna Rowe in Punk Noir Magazine.
  
• "Chainsaw — a Christmas Crime" by Wilson Koewing in Punk Noir Magazine
• "Elf Shoes — a Christmas Crime" by Casey Stegman in Punk Noir Magazine 
• "Some Things Don’t Change at Christmas" by K.M. Rockwood in Mysteryrat's Maze Podcast. 
  

 

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for the new Bergerac.
  
• Watch a trailer for Black Bag.
• Watch a trailer for Gazer.
  
• Watch a trailer for Novocaine.