Crime Fiction Links of the Week for January 17, 2026
Crime fiction in general:
- CrimeReads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week.
- Laura Wilson shares her favourite recent crime novels and thrillers.
- Margot Douaihy explains why noir feels so relevant today
- Letizia Lorini talks about blending romance and crime in literature
- Moira Donegan detects a new golden age of lesbian pulp fiction
- Isha Raya talks about reclaiming queer-coded villains.
- Rebecca Hannigan shares six moody, atmospheric crime novels that explore womanhood and societal expectations
- Michael Gonzales talks about pimps in black pop culture from the 1970s to the early 2000s
- Andrea Mara discusses how modern technology affects mystery stories
- Sarah Crouch explains why game wardens make good sleuths.
- A.D. Bell shares seven novels that delve into the great mysteries of Oxford
- Erin Kelly reports that crime ficttion writer Harriet Tyce is a contestant in the British reality show The Traitors and explains why crime writers are the perfect contestants for that kind of show.
- Mystery writer David Roberts has died.
Film and TV:
- Olivia Rutigliano lists new TV series to watch this January.
- Tim Grierson calls A Private Life a grown-up whodunnit.
- Arturo Serrano calls The Copenhagen Test a deadly game of stories inside stories, masks behind masks
- Radha Vatsal calls The Secret Agent a neo-noir historical political thriller set in Brazil in 1977—when the country was still under a military dictatorship.
- Trent Moore declares that the 1970s spy thriller Ponies hits a sweet spot between The Americans and Burn Notice
- Arturo Serrano declares that the new Anaconda feels like something captured by its titular monster: a regurgitated, half-digested lump that is hard to ignore but much harder to look at.
- Catherine Bray calls A Gangster’s Life funny in parts, but not always deliberately so
- Catherine Bray calls Clickbait a restrained, unsettling workplace thriller
- Peter Bradshaw calls Escape an intensely, sometimes even passionately acted piece of work, imagining the inner life of a man who was once Japan’s most wanted fugitive.
- Leslie Felperin calls The Knife an audaciously taut film about a police encounter and an intense drama of mutual suspicion
- Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on the second episode of Lynley.
- Paul Hirons calls His & Hers pulpy, twisty and instantly moreish and bingeable.
- Garrick Webster looks ahead at season 5 of Astrid: Murder in Paris.
- Michael Hogan lists his favourite TV spies.
- Martin Edwards revisits the 1991 road movie Thelma and Louise
- Paul Hirons revisits the 2006 time travel cop show Life on Mars.
- Martin Edwards revisits the 2020 suspense thriller Alone.
- Rich Pelley interviews Melissa Leo, best known for her roles in Homicide, Olympus Has Fallen, The Fighter, The Equalizer, The Knife and many others.
- Zoe Williams interviews Sophie Turner, best known for her roles in Game of Thrones, the X-Men movies, Tomb Raider and Steal.
- Actor T.K. Carter, best known for his appearances in The Thing, The Corner, Ski Patrol and Punky Brewster, has died age 69.
Comments on season 2 of Hijack:
Comments on Seven Dials:
- Lucy Mangan declares that Seven Dials feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the Queen’s hand in heaven
- Saloni Gajjar declares that Seven Dials turns a mediocre novel into an engaging miniseries
- Chris Connor shares his thoughts on Seven Dials.
- Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on Seven Dials.
Comments on The Rip:
Comments on the bidding war between Netflix and Paramount for Warner Bros:
- Jill Goldsmith reports that Paramount has filed a lawsuit to stop the merger of Netflix and Warner Bros.
- Joanna Partridge reports that Netflix has now switched to a multi-billion US-dollar all cash offer to purchase Warner Bros and pre-empt Paramount
- Alex Weprin predicts that the battle for Warner Bros might get even uglier.
Writing, publishing and promotion:
- David Arndt shares five steps to a better writing process
- Ed Simon tallks about writers and their day jobs
- Kemi Cole shares a research guide for responsible SFF worldbuilding
- Paul Anthony Jones explains the most viral slang terms of 2025.
- Surina Venkat reports that publishers are taking a step back from LGBTQ books following Donald Trump's return to office.
- Mike Glyer reports that Must Reads Magazines, publishers of Analog, Asimov's and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, have changed their standard contract in response to cricitism by SFWA
- Michael Capobianco urgens writers who are part of the class action lawsuit against Anthropic AI to check whether their rights have reverted.
- Mike Glyer reports that Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction, has been hospitalised following a brain aneurysm and that Emily Hockaday will serve as interim editor.
- Literary agent Patrick Delahunt has died aged 72.
Awards:
Interviews:
- Scott Simon interviews Jennie Godfrey and Mary Louise Kelly interviews Chris Chibnall.
- Barbara Peters interviews Allison Montclair
- Alex Dueben interviews Ross Montgomery.
- B.V. Lawson interviews Orion Gregory.
- Marshal Zeringue interviews Bruce Robert Coffin.
- Lisa Haselton interviews Yoav Blum.
- Lisa Haselton interviews R.J. Koreto.
- E.B. Davis interviews Heather Weidner.
- Van and Jean Jensen interview each other.
- D.P. Lyle and Kathleen Antrim interview Michael Grumleyon
- D.P. Lyle interviews James L'Etoile.
Reviews:
- Judith Sullivan reviews The Ice Angels by Caroline Mitchell
- In Search of the ClaIssic Mystery Novel reviews Forbidden Waters by Rob Parker
- Mandie Griffiths reviews Silent Scream by Angela Marsons
- Jen Lucas reviews Into the Dark by Ørjan Karlsson, translated by Ian Giles
- Doreen Sheridan reviews Where He Left Me by Nicole Baart
- Sandra Mangan reviews Better Off Dead by Sean Watkin
- Doreen Sheridan reviews With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee
- Marlene Harris reviews The Shop on Hidden Lane by Jayne Ann Krentz
- Lesa Holstine reviews Inside Man by John McMahon
- Joseph B. Hoyos reviews False Witness by Phillip Margolini
- Doreen Sheridan reviews 6:40 To Montreal by Eva Jurczyk
- Blue Book Balloon reviews The Echo of Crows by Phil Rickman
- Lesa Holstine reviews The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
- Janet Webb reviews Fire Must Burn by Allison Montclair
- Marlene Harris reviews A Lion’s Ransom by Candace Robb
- Mandie Griffiths reviews The Death of Shame by Ambrose Parry
- Jen Lucas reviews The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood
- Jen Lucas reviews A Killer in Paradise by Tom Hindle
- Doreen Sheridan reviews Gull And Bones by Sally Goldenbaum and tries a recipe from the book.
- Kate Jackson reviews Little Miss Marple: Muddle at the Vicarage and Mr Poirot: Mischief on the Nile by Roger and Adam Hargreaves.
Classics reviews:
- Happiness is a Book revisits the 1933 mystery The Bank Vault Mystery by Louis F. Booth
- Martin Edwards revisits the 1936 mystery Reduction of Staff by F.J. Whaley.
- In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1940 mystery collection The Department Of Queer Complaints by Carter Dickson
- B.V. Lawson revisits the 1948 crime novel Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1951 humorous mystery The Wooden Overcoat by Pamela Branch
- Happiness is a Book revisits the 1968 The Toff mystery Stars for the Toff by John Creasey
- James Davis Nicoll revisits the 1995 science fiction mystery The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa, translated by Jesse Kirkwood.
- Polly Stewart and Hank Phillippi Ryan revisits the 2005 crime novel Citizen Vince by Jess Walter.
Con and event reports:
Research:
Free online fiction:
Trailers and videos:
Odds and ends:
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