crime
Some Conspiracy Theories Surrounding the Royal House of Windsor
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One of the joys of writing historical fiction as opposed to non-fiction is that the author can take a well-reasoned conspiracy theory and run with it, imagining how such deliciously scandalous events might have unfolded. That is exactly what I have done in my new novel, The Royal Windsor Secret. The British Royals have been…
The Girl and the Faun: Eden Phillpotts, His Crime Fiction and His Strange Relationship with His Daughter Adelaide
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“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…
10 New Books Coming Out This Week
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Another week, another batch of books for your TBR pile. Happy reading, folks. * Tod Goldberg, Gangsters Dont Die (Counterpoint) “As ever, Goldberg is adept at writing about mob hits, explosions, corpses and other cases of criminal bad news with a smirking, noirish tone. But he writes with sensitivity too, from painterly depictions of the…
Yasmin Angoe on Morally Gray Action Thrillers and the Heroes Nena Knight Can Spar
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I’ve thought long and hard about this particular topic—characters, or heroes that Nena Knight, elite Ghanaian assassin from my Nena Knight trilogy, could spar with. As I worked on the newest book in the series, It Ends with Knight, I wondered who Nena could go toe-to-toe with either physically or intellectually. Now, you’re probably wondering…
The Gilded Age: On Invention and Excess
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“We don’t have a choice in the matter, Mr. McAllistar, we must go where history takes us.” In the HBO Gilded Age series, these were Bertha Russell’s brave words to Ward McAllister on the night Thomas Edison flipped the switch to electrically light up the New York Times Building. McAllister had expressed a qualm about…
Past Crimes: Excerpt and Cover Reveal
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On May 13th, 2034, twenty-three-year-old Joy Ruiz disappeared. On July 19th, 2037, Cassie West sat at a table inside an encrypted Lockbox in front of the young woman’s grieving family, preparing to tell them how much their daughter’s life was worth. Cassie was not responsible for Joy Ruiz’s disappearance, and, in fact, had known nothing…
James Ellroy Reveals the Real Reason He Writes
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“A literature that cannot be vulgarized is no literature at all, and will not last.” Frank O’Connor laid it out. He wrote the words at the cusp of the 20th century. Said words prophesied the hard-boiled novel. Hard-boiled scorched its artistic debut on February 1, 1929. Dashiell Hammett’s first novel, Red Harvest, hit bookstores. Hammett’s…
The Cowboy Detective, Undercover and in Danger Among the Texas Desperados
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The following is an excerpt from Nathan Ward’s new book about Charlie Siringo: Son of the Old West, now available from Atlantic Monthly Press. ___________________________________ Along the snowy road from Cheyenne toward Fort Douglas, the roundup season was well finished. This was the time of year when the Round-up Number 5 saloon held on to…
Island Vacations Can Be Murder
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Sure, island vacations can be fun, relaxing, and restorative. But that’s if you’re reading a book in a different genre. In the world of crime, island vacations can be murder. Ever since Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley headed to Italy to bring Dickie Greenleaf back home, the allure of something sinister taking place on an island…