Suspense
The Existential Crisis of Home Invasions: A Reading List
.
I got into a car accident right after college, and I knew some insurance money was coming my way. The insurance agent had hinted it would be in the tens of thousands, and I told myself that I was going to make a movie with the money. That was something I’d always wanted to, but…
October’s Best Psychological Thrillers
.
October brings a host of wonderful new psychological thrillers, distinguished by their commitment to using the form to explore pressing social issues as the genre continues to evolve and take on a wider scope. Below, you’ll find 6 new books, each with its own unique take on crafting compelling suspense. Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women (S&S/MarySue…
Black Horror Fiction Has Always Been Here. What’s Changed Is The Attitudes of Gatekeepers.
.
2023 has, so far, been a year full of innovative and mind-bending anthologies, and Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror is one of the best. With an incredible list of contributors, and Jordan Peele as editor, this collection is meant to be savored and celebrated. I asked contributors to the anthology to answer a…
Learning to Love Thrillers and Their Morally Compromised Characters
.
I’ve been a stay-at-home dad for six years now and I could tell you horror stories. I’ve changed diapers on gas station bathroom floors that should have been condemned. I’ve caught my babies picking up the most vile things in city parks. There are events with Roombas and couch cushions and Cheerios that would live…
Jesse Q. Sutanto on Toxic Friendships, Shrinking Attention Spans, and Finding the Muse
.
As one of the terminally online, I really enjoyed the recent “how often men think about the Roman Empire” discourse on Twitter. One response that went viral claimed that the female equivalent of thinking about the Roman Empire is thinking about your ex-best friend, and after a recent friendship breakup and also tearing through Jesse…
The Western Meets Weird Fiction: A Roundtable Discussion
.
Once a narrowly defined genre—set in the American frontier of the 19th Century—the definition of Western has expanded with contemporary takes from such authors as Cormac McCarthy, Ivy Pochoda, Alma Katsu, Jim Harrison and Louise Erdrich. And now, along comes HOT IRON AND COLD BLOOD: An Anthology of the Weird West (September 26, 2023; Dead Sky Publishing),…
Nine Crime Novels Featuring Found Families
.
My historical novel published in 2021, Death at Greenway, used research on the real people who had lived on the estate of Agatha Christie’s holiday home in the English Riviera during World War II. Faced with the universe of facts I could lay my hands on, I had to be selective about which details were…
A Country Road, in the Dead of Night: On The Historical Hauntings of Irish Folklore
.
First published in 1936, On Another Man’s Wound was written by Earnán Ó Máille and recounts his time as a guerrilla fighter during the Irish War of Independence in the nineteen twenties. It is generally considered to be the one bona-fide piece of literature to arise from that conflict. No dry military memoir, Ó Máille…
A Brief History of Circus in Fiction
.
The history of travelling carnivals, or circuses, is complex. The form is steeped in tradition, but the people who live and make their living in modern circuses are a diverse bunch, hailing from everywhere in the world. Often they live a nomadic life, travelling internationally with different circuses each season. There are circus families that…
6 Creepy Novels Featuring Murder Houses
.
There’s something beautiful about ugliness. We all have it simmering under the surface. But we make damn sure not to show it. Why? In my debut, The Stranger Upstairs, Sarah Slade is a popular influencer who struggles with a dark side. Her marriage is falling apart and her career is on a knife’s edge. She…