Crime Fiction Links of the Week for January 10, 2026

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 Night Manager, Lynley, A Thousand Blows, His & Hers, a debate about whether ethical AI use in writing and publishing is possible and much more.
 

Crime fiction in general: 

• CrimeReads shares ten new crime novels coming out this week.
• Molly Odintz shares her most anticipated crime novels, mysteries and thrillers of 2026. 
• Molly Odintz shares psychological thrillers coming out in January 2026.
•  Jeff Meyerson shares his favourite crime novels of 2025 
• Paul French takes a look at crime fiction set in England's Lake District
• Taryn Souders shares eight cozy mysteries perfect for middle grade and young adult readers
• Olivia Rutigliano lists nine classic crime stories that have entered the public domain in 2026 
• Amy Pease explains why villains who get away with their crimes are so fascinating. 
• Victoria Gilbert talks about her family relationship with crime and adventure fiction writer Joel Townsley Rogers 

 

Film and TV:  

• Phil Harrison calls Waiting for the Out a totally magnificent TV-drama about philosophy in prison
• Lucy Mangan calls Girl Taken a twisty tale of teen abduction 
• Andy Crump calls Dead Man's Wire an overly narrow hostage drama. 
• Paul Hirons calls the Swedish crime drama Land of Sin a resolutely grim Nordic noir that commits fully to atmosphere, even when its storytelling struggles to convince. 
• Eleanor Briggs attempts to rank all Harlan Coben adaptations and finds that they're all bad, but some are worse then others. 
• Olivia Rutigliano lists crime novels set in the south of France. 
• Paul Hirons revisits the 1980 detective series Magnum PI. 
• Scott Monty revisits the 1985 movie Young Sherlock Holmes.
• Martin Edwards revisits the 2002 crime movie Murder by Numbers 
• Robert Rubsam revisits the 2007 serial killer film Zodiac. 
• Florencia Aberastury revisits the 2011 spy film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 
• Jack Dunn shares director Guillermo del Toro's comments about the importance of art. 
• Miatta Mbriwa reports that Chloé Zhao, director of Eternals, has said that ‘feminine consciousness’ incompatible with current Hollywood model  
• Sian Cain reports that actress Evangeline Lilly, best known for her appearances in Lost, the Hobbit movies and the Ant-Man movies, has suffered brain damage after experiencing a fall. 
• Benjamin Mullen reports that the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which operates NPR and PBS among others, has voted to shut down after the US Congress cut their funding. 
• Former child actor Sidney Kibrick, one of the last few survivors of the Our Gang shorts, has died aged 97.  

  

Comments on The Night Manager: 

• Chris Connor shares his thoughts on season 2 of The Night Manager.
• Paul Hirons shares his thoughts on episode 2 of season 2 of The Night Manager. 

 

Comments on Lynley: 

• Lucy Mangan calls Lynley the ultimate undemanding TV   
• Pail Hirons shares his thoughts on the first episode of Lynley. 

 

 Comments on A Thousand Blows:

• Rachel Aroesti praises Erin Doherty's performance in season 2 of the historical crime drama A Thousand Blows.  
• Emine Saner interviews Erin Doherty who plays Mary Carr in A Thousand Blows. 

 

Comments on His & Hers: 

• Saloni Gajjar calls His & Hers a whodunit riddled with plot holes.   
• Lucy Mangan calls His & Hers a glossy thriller that is ideal new year TV  

 

Writing, publishing and promotion: 

• Gabino Iglesias shares ten ways to turn your writing resolutions into reality
• Elizabeth McCracken shares some tips for writing a novel in 2026. 
• Jenn Lyons talks about building the ecology of an SFF universe 
• Cate Quinn shares some of the strange things she learned for research. 
• John Scalzi reports that Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden is retiring after 37 years. 
• Locus also reports about Patrick Nielsen Hayden's retirement from Tor. 
• Sam Spratford reports that both Patrick Nielsen Hayden, editor-at-large, and Linda Quinton, publisher and vice president of Tor Forge Books, have retired. 
• Michael Schaub reports that the state of Utah has added Wicked by Gregory Maguire to the list of books banned from public schools in the state. 
• Natalie op de Beek reports that a lawsuit by the estate of Kurt Vonnegut is challenging Utah's book banning laws. 
• Leah Romero reports that proposed legislation would prohibit book banning in New Mexico public libraries 

 

The Debate about intentional and unintentional AI-use in writing and publishing: 

• Stewart Hotston responds to Erin Underwood's open letter about AI-use in writing and publishing.
• Nancy Jane Moore declares that AI is not inevitable. 

 

Awards: 

• The finalists for the 2026 Lefty Awards have been announced. 
• The winners of the 2025 Deutscher Krimipreis have been announced. 
• The finalists for the 2026 Golden Globes have been announced with some love for genre film and TV.
• The winners of the 2026 Critics Choice Awards have been announced.  
• The finalists for the 2026 SAG Actor Awards have been announced.  

 

Interviews: 

• Alex Dueben interviews Max Allan Collins. 
• Scott Simon interviews Jennie Godfrey
• Alan Petersen interviews Daniel Hurst. 
• Radha Vatsal interviews Christina Kovac. 
• E.B. Davis interviews Annette Dashofy. 
• E.B. Davis interviews Susan Van Kirk. 
• Deborah Kalb interviews Saul Gulabcow. 
• Naomi Kaye interviews Gregg Owen and Jonathan Dixon

 

Reviews:

• Lesa Holstine reviews The Shop on Hidden Lane by Jayne Ann Krentz  
• Jon Morgan reviews In the Shadows by Chris MacDonald  
• Jen Lucas reviews Long Time Dead by T.M. Payne 
• Chris Connor reviews The Peak by Sam Guthrie 
• Ali Karim reviews The Lodge by Paul Finch  
• Ali Karim reviews The Bureau by Eoin McNamee   
• Vicki Weisfeld reviews The Persian by David McCloskey 
• Lesa Holstine reviews The Politician by Tim Sullivan 
• Gwen Moffat reviews Troublemaker by Lesley Kara  
• Mandie Griffiths reviews Blood Caste by Shylashri Shankar. 
• Garrick Webster reviews The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee 
• Mandie Griffiths reviews The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukherjee  
• Adam Colcough reviews The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan   
• Adam Colclough reviews The Case of the Hydegild Sacrifice by David Cairns  
• BOLO Books reviews The Hindenburg Spy by L.A. Chandlar 
• Robin Agnew reviews The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery. 
• Marlene Harris reviews Dance with Death by Will Thomas 
• Joseph B. Hoyos reviews A Deadly Clue by Victoria Gilbert 
• Lesa Holstine reviews A Grave Deception by Connie Berry
• Jen Lucas reviews The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
• Kate Jackson reviews An Unwanted Inheritance by Imogen Clark   
• Sue Lord reviews A Taste for Murder by Matt Baker  
• Toby Litt reviews A Long Game: How to Write Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken  

 

Classics reviews: 

• Adrian McKinty revisits the 1926 Hercule Poirot mystery The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie.
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1939 Mrs. Beatrice Adela Lestrange Bradley mystery Printer’s Error by Gladys Mitchell 
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1946 suspense novel The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong
• Kate Jackson revisits the 1955 mystery Sky High by Michael Gilbert 
• In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel revisits the 1972 mystery Three Green Bottles by Dominic Devine  
• Happiness is a Book revisits the 1978 Miss Melinda Pink mystery Persons Unknown by Gwen Moffat  
• Martin Edwards revisits the 1992 mystery The Precious Gift by John Bowen. 
• B.V. Lawson revisits the 2005 non-fiction book Detective Fiction by Charles J. Rzepka 
• Lesa Holstine revisits the 2012 Hugh Marston historical mystery The Bookseller by Mark Pryor

 

Con and event reports:

• Ayo Onatade shares the theme for the 2026 St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend in Oxford, UK.

 

Research: 

• Gordon Corera recounts how KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin walked into the British embassy in newly independent Lithuania in 1992 and offered the MI6 material stolen from the KBN archive.  
• Eric Lichtblau reports that Orange County in California was a haven for white supremacists in the 1990s. 

 

Free online fiction: 

• "Victorian Whimsy" by Meg O’Connor in Mystery Tribune.
• "Repo" by John Kucera in Mystery Tribune.
• "La Cosa Americana" by John Kaprielian in The Five-Two.
    

Trailers and videos: 

• Watch a trailer for Seven Dials. 
• Watch a trailer for The Death of Robin Hood.  
• Watch a trailer for They Will Kill You.