mystery
The Orchestral Stirrings of Death on the Down Beat, a Musician’s Murder Mystery
.
Death on the Down Beat, originally published in 1941, is subtitled “An Orchestral Fantasy of Detection.” This is a highly unusual detective novel which is likely to appeal particularly to music lovers. A rare and little-known novel, it has nevertheless been described by the Golden Age mystery aficionado Barry Pike in The Oxford Companion to…
“The Mousetrap”: Still Going Strong After 28,000 Performances
.
On the day Agatha Christie died in 1976, London theaters dimmed their lights for an hour in a show of esteem for her. While best known as the top-selling novelist of all time, Christie also set a record for the longest running stage production. The play she predicted would last 8 months, The Mousetrap, opened…
Literary Fiction Can Be Murder
.
For a bibliophile, there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book. The last place most booklovers want to be is stuck in the middle of a crowd. However, nothing can draw an introverted booklover into a crowd better than a book event. Book clubs, book conventions, book festivals, and author readings and signings…
The White Priory Murders, A Christmas Mystery That Deserves To Be Remembered
.
The White Priory Murders is an “impossible crime” novel by the master of the locked-room mystery, John Dickson Carr, masquerading as Carter Dickson, the name associated with his stories featuring Sir Henry Merrivale. Originally published in 1934, this was Merrivale’s second recorded case, written with youthful verve at a time when the author was still…
Agatha Christie’s Most Romantic Murder Mysteries
.
A closed circle of dubious personalities gather in one house at the invitation of a mysterious host. They hide tragic secrets, financial disasters, and desperate ulterior motives as they compete to get their target alone. This is the premise for several Agatha Christie novels, and the hit series The Bachelor. Christie was most interested in…
There’s Nothing Better Than A Good Bad Guy
.
“The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.” —Alfred Hitchcock Let’s start with the simple assertion that all great fiction is crime fiction. From classic Greek tragedies to Shakespeare’s plays to film noir, To Kill A Mockingbird, Lord of The Rings or Stars Wars or Game of Thrones—something has been stolen, someone has…
Cozy Mysteries to Add to Your Christmas Stocking
.
I don’t know about you, but a fresh set of fleece pajamas and a brand-new novel on Christmas Eve is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Throw in a roaring fireplace, a mug of cocoa loaded with whip cream and a candy cane stir, and trust me, I’m up long after Santa flies overhead. I…
From Academic to Crime Writer
.
“You can’t be serious.” Twice in my life, academic colleagues and friends have had that reaction when I’ve told them what I was planning to do. The first time was in the early 1990s, when I decided to teach a course on LGBT politics at the University of California, San Diego, one of the first…
A List of Jewish Crime Thrillers
.
My novel The Great Gimmelmans is about a family of Jewish bank robbers who lose all their money in the Stock Market Crash of 1987 and start robbing banks, kids and all, out of the only thing that hasn’t been repossessed: their gas-guzzling RV. The Gimmelmans begin as a secular, reform Jewish family, but by…
Thrillers Where Natural Disaster Looms Large
.
It’s a perennial question at readings and signings: Where do you get the ideas for your books? I usually mumble something that amounts to (phrased politely), “I pull them out of thin air.” But when it comes to Best Be Prepared (Severn House), my most recent in a series featuring amateur sleuth Nora Best, I…