crime
90s Horror-Thrillers Created a New Generation of Would-Be Detectives
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For two now-distant decades, horror movies were less about whodunit, and more about how-the-hell-do-they-stop-this-guy? In 1978, Halloween burst onto the scene, followed, two years later, by Friday the 13th. By the time Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street hit screens, moviegoers couldn’t get enough of the jump-scares, and the unsettled sleeps that inevitably followed….
6 Thrilling Reads That Blend Folklore and Horror
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From tales told around the campfire to major literary classics, there’s a reason we turn to folklore when we want a scary story with staying power. Stories from mythology and folklore persist through the centuries because there’s something in them that speaks to us on a deep human level—and makes us check over our shoulder…
How Do Cold Case Investigators Identify A Body When DNA Testing Is Not Possible?
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The risk of becoming an unidentified decedent, or a John or Jane Doe, isn’t something most of us will face when we die—but it is a possibility, especially for the most vulnerable among us. There are tens of thousands of long-term unidentified persons in the United States, whose cases have sat for years, even decades,…
Safe Places: On Writing Books for Teens about Teen Issues
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I moved ten times before I turned seventeen. That number doesn’t count temporary moves while waiting for housing, like the time we lived in a hotel on Waikiki for two months. Or the many short stints in apartments, often with no furniture other than the bench seat from our minivan, a television, and some air…
Six Books About Women Working Together
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So often we hear news of some criminally misogynist finally having a #MeToo moment. For most women, these stories are not particularly surprising, given our lived experiences, given what we observe in work and politics and even our homes every day. What is always amazing to me however is the team of women working together…
What Is the Legacy of Walter Hill?
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Will the real Walter Hill please stand up? The screenwriter and director is hard to label. Should Hill, now in his 80s, be considered the screenwriter of classic crime films like “The Getaway” and “The Drowning Pool?” The director of uncharacteristic, offbeat films like “Streets of Fire,” “Brewster’s Millions” and “Crossroads?” Or the auteur of…
5 Historical Mysteries Featuring Unforgettable, Unconventional Women
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A lawyer in 1920s Bombay. A computer hacker/tech investigator in 1990s Paris. A deputy sheriff in 1914 New Jersey. What unites these characters, separated by time and diverse locales? Each one is an independent, unconventional woman in the role of investigator. I have been an avid reader of crime fiction for as long as I…
David L. Ulin on Capturing the Special, Despairing Noir of the West
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David L. Ulin has spent the better part of thirty years as the preeminent book critic in the West; first at the late, great, LA Reader and then as book review editor and later Book Critic for the Los Angeles Times and currently as the books editor for Alta Journal. At the same time, he’s…
From Broadway Musicals to Thrilling Mysteries: A Writing Life in Two Acts
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I’ve always been a tremendous fan of thrillers, especially of the psychological variety. Whether on the page or on the screen, they rank amongst my favorite thing ever. (I can practically recite the entirety of Rear Window verbatim, with a convincing Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart or Thelma Ritter impersonation, depending on the delivery.) I adore…