Crime Fiction Links of the Week for May 17, 2025

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 2 of Poker Face, Duster, Mission Improssibl: The Final Reckoning, This City is Ours, Hurry Up Tomorrow, Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story, Donald Trump's war on foreign films and much more.
 

Crime fiction in general: 

• CrimeReads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week,   
• Laura Wilson shares a round-up of recent crime novels and thrillers.
• K.W. Colyard shares twelve mystery series set around the world.
• Molly Odintz shares her favourite psychological thrillers for May. 
• Michelle Gagnon shares her favourite humorous thrillers.
  
• Paul French shares crime novels set in Aspen, Colorado. 
• Anna Shoekstra shares seven crime novels built "on the weight of a shared secret"
  
• K.A. Merson shares six great puzzle novels.
  
• Tom Milani discusses the enduring influence of James M. Cain
• Paperback Warrior profiles noir author Charles Williams.
• John Lawton discusses how very different the James Bond novels are from the movie series. 
• J. Kingston Pierce reports that two forgotten works by Ian Fleming have been discovered. 
• Anthony D'Alessandro reports that Don Winslow in not retiring from writing after all.
  
• J. Kingston Pierce reports that there will be a new Charles Todd historical mystery soon, even though Caroline Todd, one half of the mother and son team writing under the pen name Charles Todd, died in 2021.  
• Scott Neuman reports that Hadi Matar who stabbed and seriously injured Salman Rushdie in 2022 has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
  

 

Film and TV:  

• Peter Bradshaw calls Hallow Road a cracking thriller.
  
• Jim Vorel calls Sew Torn an imaginative crime thriller with too many loose threads 
• Peter Bradshaw calls Dossier 137 a tense French thriller about police brutality. 
• Diana Keng shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Leverage: Redemption.
  
• Joshua M. Patton shares his thought on the season 7 finale of The Rookie.
  
• Lucy Mangan shares her thoughts on the true crime documentary Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park  
• Alex Rollins Berg shares five underappreciated screwball thrillers. 
• Olivia Rutigliano takes a look at terrible head injuries in crime movies.
  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1981 crime movie Cutter's Way.
• Cheryl Eddy revisits the 1990 Twin Peaks episode "The Last Evening".
  
• Cheryl Eddy revisits the 1998 X-Files episode "Folie à Deux".
• Paul Hirons revisits the 2013 thriller The Fall.
  
• Amelia Tait reports about actors who only appeared in photographs on screen, often playing dead people. 
• Sabina Graves reports that YouTube is finally cracking down on those fake movie trailer channels. 
• Angelique Chrisafis reports that actor Gérard Depardieu has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two women
• Wendy Lee reports that actress Jamie Lee Curtis found herself at the forefront of a battle over generative AI after requesting Meta to take down an ad using her image and voice without permission.  
• Director and screenwriter Robert Benton has died aged 92. 
  

 

Comments on season 2 of Poker Face: 

• Noel Murray shares his thoughts on the latest episode of Poker Face. 
• Melody McCune shares her thoughts on the latest episode of Poker Face. 
  
• Diana Keng takes a look at a unique Poker Face filming location.

 

Comments on Duster:

•  Caroline Siede declares that Duster brings 1970s flair to the buddy-cop formula
• Garrett Martin notes that the 1970s action homage Duster isn’t nearly as fun as it should be  

 

Comments on Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning: 

• Peter Bradshaw calls Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning a wildly entertaining adventure
• Ignatiy Vishnevetsky calls Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning repetitive, but also so outrageous that it's hard not to enjoy the ride. 
• Germain Lussier declares that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has its moments, but ultimately is a letdown
• Catherine Shoard notes that Tom Cruise doesn’t need sleep, help or clothes in Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning.
  
• Philip Oltermann reports about a particularly risky stunt in Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
  

 

Comments on This City is Ours:

• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on series 1 of This City is Ours.
• Paul Hirosn reports that This City is Ours has been renewed for a second series.
  

 

Comments on Hurry Up Tomorrow:

• Andrew Lawrence calls Hurry Up Tomorrow a meta-thriller that plays like a music video 
• Jesse Hassenger declares that even as a music video, Hurry Up Tomorrow would be excruciating
  

 

 Comments on Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story:

• Lucy Mangan calls Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story a sordid true crime series that doesn’t even reveal the worst of it
  
• Matthew Pearce shares his thoughts on the true crime documentary Fred and Rose West: A British Horror Story

 

Comments on Donald Trump's war on foreign films:

• Jasper Jolly shares the fears of Dean Brooks, prop-maker at Shepperton Studios, for his professional future following Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs on foreign films.
• Brent Lang and Gene Maddaus report that various Hollywood studios are discussing how to handle Donald Trump's planned tariffs on foreign made films.    
• Steven Zeitchik reports how California's Attorney General Rob Bonta is planning to stop Trump's proposed tariffs on foreign films.

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Alex Jennings talks about worldbuilding.
  
• Leonie Swann talks about the joys and travails of writing with a canine companion 
• Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti talk about the art of collaborative writing
• Victoria Strauss shares two new scams aimed at writers. 
• Olivia Reid shares seven characteristics of people who prefer physical books.
  
• Lucy Knight reports that Audible has announced plans to use AI voices to narrate audiobooks
  
• Erica S. Perl reports how a visit to an elementary school in Virginia was cancelled, because a parent objected to a non-binary snail in one of her books, and how she fought back. 
  
• Nathalie op de Beeck reports that Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has been fired by the White House 
• Neda Ulaby reports that Donald Trump has appointed his former lawyer Todd Blanche as the new Librarian of Congress in spite of having no librarian experience. 
• Nathalie op de Beeck has more about the battle over the US Library of Congress.
  
• Ed Nawotka reports that Shira Perlmutter, director of the US Copyright Office, has been fired mere days after releasing a report wherein the use of copyrighted works for AI training was denounced as a copyright violation.

 

Awards:

• The winner of the 2025 Spotted Owl Award has been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2025 British Book Awards have been announced.
  
• The winners of the 2025 Bafta TV Awards have been announced with some love for crime TV.
  

 

Interviews: 

• Alex Dueben interviews Anthony Horowitz. 
• John Valeri interviews Wendy Corsi Staub
• Elise Dumpleton interviews Mia P. Manansala 
  
• Ayesha Rascoe interviews Liann Zhang.
• Garrick Webster interviews Andrew Lowe. 
• Deborah Kalb interviews Brendan Slocumb.
  
• Morgan Leigh Davies interviews Michelle Young.
  

 

Reviews:

• Mary Picken reviews The Man Made of Smoke by Alex North
• Jen Lucas reviews Born In A Burial Gown by M.W. Craven 
• Mike Parker reviews No Quarter by Paul Finch 
  
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews Leave No Trace by A.J. Landau
• Jen Lucas reviews Crucified by Lynda La Plante 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey
• Mandie Griffiths reviews The Cliff House by Chris Brookmyre
  
• Jen Lucas reviews Shatter Creek by Rod Reynolds
• Blue Book Balloon reviews South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver 
• Mary Picken reviews  South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver 
• Doreen Sheridan reviews A Girl Like Us by Anna Sophia McLoughlin
  
• BOLO Books reviews The Tenant by Freida McFadden.   
• Fiona Sturges reviews Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway
• James Davis Nicoll reviews A Quiet Teacher by Adam Oyebanji
  
• Robin Agnew reviews The Language of the Birds by K.A. Merson.
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann, translated by Amy Bojang.
  
• Marlene Harris reviews The Adventures of Mary Darling by Pat Murphy  
• James Davis Nicoll reviews Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite  
  
• Janet Webb reviews Skin and Bones: And Other Mike Bowditch Short Stories by Paul Doiron
  

 

Classics reviews:

• Lesa Holstine revisits the 1946 mystery Creeping Venom by Sheila Pim
• Kate Jackson revisits the 1949 Nigel Strangeways mystery Head of a Traveller by Nicholas Blake
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1956 mystery Midsummer Murder by Cecil M. Wills 
• Bruce Riordan revisits the 1958 Lew Archer crime novel The Doomsters by Ross Macdonald
• Kate Jackson revisits the 1961 Mr. Potter mystery Curtain Call a.k.a. It’s Murder, Mr Potter by Rae Foley
  
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1982 The Three Investigators YA mystery The Mystery Of The Purple Pirate by William Arden
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 1984 Inspector Andrew Coggin and Sergeant Fred Sump mystery Murder Before Matins by John Reeves.  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1987 mystery Fetish a.k.a. A Personal Possession by Jeanne Hart. 
  
• Lesa Holstine revisits the 1988 Mrs. Pargeter mystery Mrs, Presumed Dead by Simon Brett 
  

 

Con and event reports:

• Ella Creamer reports about Translated By, Bristol, a new literary festival focussing on translated fiction in Bristol, UK.
  

 

Research: 

• Rachel McCarthy James shares a brief history of the cultural obsessions with axe murders.
• Mark Brown, Haroon Siddique and Aletha Adu report that the murder conviction of Peter Sullivan who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering a woman in 1986, has been overturned due to DNA evidence after 38 years in prison.
• Michael Gonzales recounts how crack changed Harlem in the 1980s.
  
• Dan Huckelbridge profiles Wild West outlaw Belle Starr. 
• Nev March talks about the 1832 Bombay dog riot. 
  

 

Free online fiction: 

• "The Attic" by Monica Kagan in Mystery Tribune.
• "O’ Happy Day!" by Joseph Carrabis in Mystery Tribune.
• "You Know I'm No Good" by M.J. Huntsgood in Guilty.
  
• "Keeper" by Scott Blackburn in Tough.
  
  

 Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for Task.
  
• Watch a trailer for Ballerina.
  
• Watch a trailer for Nobody 2. 
• Watch a trailer for Americana.
• Watch a trailer for Secrets We Keep.
  
• Watch a trailer for Highest 2 Lowest.