mystery
Queer Crime Fiction Coming Out This Fall
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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…
When It Comes to Solving Mysteries, Aunties Get Things Done
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Most people have aunts, but not everyone has aunties. It’s hard to explain the difference to the uninitiated–aunties have nothing (or very little) to do with blood relation or age. To be an Auntie requires a certain kind of energy or vibe, that perfect storm of love and judgment, and the ability to strike fear…
Character Descriptions: Callum and Gracie Phillips
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It was a clear sunny day. Outside, a group of servicemen in uniform were talking in a group. Adjoining them was Callum Phillips, who I recognized from the news footage. He was standing with a lady, who was taller and broader across the shoulders. She was probably his sister or aunt. I noticed a family…
A Haunting in Venice is the Best of Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot Adaptations, and an Engaging Film On Its Own
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I was impressed by A Haunting in Venice as much as I was relieved by it. I had always found it both delightful and intriguing that, of all the possible franchises to take on, Kenneth Branagh chose Hercule Poirot, a funny, punctilious little Belgian detective. Yes, Poirot is one of the best—and best-known—detectives in literature…
The Dark Humor of Millennial Crime Capers
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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…
An Appreciation of Gardening Detectives
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Gardening detectives, both professional and amateur, abound in crime fiction and they appeared early on. Wilkie Collins introduced the first horticulturally inclined investigator in The Moonstone. The serialized story first appeared in the United Kingdom in January 1868 in Charles Dickens’s periodical All the Year Round and simultaneously in Harper’s Weekly in the United States.…
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…