Craft
Shop Talk: Nina Simon Tells the Incredible Story Behind Her Breakout Debut Novel
.
I met Nina Simon shortly after I read her beautiful, heartfelt debut, Mother Daughter Murder Night. If there were ever an author whose persona perfectly captures the verve of her work, it’s Nina. Nina’s all natural, almost crunchy in a Santa Cruz kind of way. She speaks from the gut and doesn’t pull any punches….
How Subplots and Plot Filaments Lend Texture and Depth to Any Novel
.
More than any other variant included under the umbrella of “crime fiction,” mystery novels embody a straightforward setup of the conflict-and-resolution components of storytelling. The conflict is murder. The resolution is naming whodunit. Everything in between—the rising and falling action, the crises and complications, the revelations and setbacks—all of that can be summed up as…
Queer Crime Fiction Coming Out This Fall
.
With the exuberance of Pride Month in June, it’s easy to get excited about new queer crime fiction in the summer months. But, with shortening days, ubiquitous Pumpkin Spice lattes, and of course, Halloween—arguably the queerest holiday of the year—the fall is the perfect time to pick up a mystery or thriller exploring the complex…
Dorothy B. Hughes, In a Lonely Place, and the Birth of the Modern Serial Killer Novel
.
Published in 1947, Dorothy Hughes’ noir novel In a Lonely Place is a masterpiece of crime fiction whose influence has extended to both books and films, including a 1950 movie adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart. The story follows a mercurial and mysterious lead, Dix Steele, who is many things: Los Angeles dreamer, war veteran, aspiring crime…
The Dark Humor of Millennial Crime Capers
.
The millennial is a strange beast. Though “millennial” is factually the word to describe someone born between 1981 and 1996, hearing it conjures a number of confusing associations: we’re soap killers, selfish and entitled, we can’t afford diamonds yet we hoover up avocados as if they contain the cure for austerity-driven ennui. And yet we…
When is a Character’s Dishonesty Justified?
.
Deception is elemental to a good mystery. The author misleads the reader constantly, from every angle. The characters mislead each other. Or they mislead the reader, or both. Lying is a theme in my new novel, This Is How We End Things, which is set in a psychology department at a small university where ethically…
Writing a Domestic Survival Thriller
.
I’ve always been obsessed with survival stories—people braving the elements, or out-scheming malevolent captors or striving to survive the end of the world. The apocalyptic trope might be my favorite of the bunch, as I never grow tired of the unique ways writers imagine the unwinding of modern society, and how those at the end…
When True Crime Meets Police Brutality
.
In 2016, journalist Amelia McDonell-Parry and I were asked to look into the death of Freddie Gray for the Undisclosed podcast, a series that focused on wrongful convictions. Gray had been killed in Baltimore police custody the year before, which led to mass protests and riots and became a national news story. State’s Attorney Marilyn…
The Girl and the Faun: Eden Phillpotts, His Crime Fiction and His Strange Relationship with His Daughter Adelaide
.
“No biography or autobiography is true, because no one in his senses tells the truth about himself….Whoever wants to know me can find me in my work.” –Eden Phillpotts (quoted in Reverie, 1981, by his daughter Adelaide Ross) “Mr. Phillpotts has always avoided personal publicity like the plague.” —Plymouth Western Morning News, 6 April 1921…