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The Enduring Appeal of Murder and Mystery: A Brief History“Thou shalt not kill,” commands the King James Bible— without, as opponents of capital punishment like to point out, riders or qualifiers....
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Who Was Benedict Arnold, Before He Became America’s Most Notorious TraitorThe sudden arrival of a horseman on a Friday afternoon electrified New Haven. Israel Bissell leapt from his saddle and shouted for the village...
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Cats and Cozies, Cozies and CatsCats and cozies go together like Romeo and Juliet. Mac and cheese. Ernie and Bert. The term cozies was coined in the 1990’s for mysteries...
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Stephen Spotswood On “Queering the Narrative of the Golden Age of America”When things seem to be going badly in a society, people sympathize with characters who distrust or operate outside of that society’s governing...
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The Many Ways to Be a Scoundrel in Early AmericaIn the summer of 1787, as the Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia, General James Wilkinson journeyed to New Orleans to visit...
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Sinking Into the Gothic Gloom: My Favourite WorksI’ve always struggled with some of the prevailing definitions of ‘gothic’ fiction. Tradition dictates there should be elements of fear, threat,...
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The Mystery of Real Estate PornIt’s a game in New York and we all play. Everyone talks real estate, how the condo market’s soft, how the rental market’s...
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Femi Kayode Considers Groups, Belief Systems, and the Village of ReadersWhen I am asked if my new novel, Gaslight , was inspired by real events, I answer no. But while the events themselves didn’t happen; the...
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Crime and the City: Portsmouth and the Isle of WightPortsmouth – known to the locals as “Pompey” – is, and has been for centuries, England’s largest Royal Navy base, 75 miles south of London in...
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The Mysterious Mr. Badman Is A Masterpiece of Macabre HumorThe Mysterious Mr. Badman is a long-forgotten but entertaining crime novel, its light-heartedness all the more unexpected given the author’s...
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Troubled Teens in Crime FictionTeenagers don’t have it easy. On top of navigating a microculture rife with veiled rules and unspoken expectations—also known as high school—they...
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Getting Ready to Say Goodbye to FargoThis November, FX released the fifth and possibly final season of the popular anthology series Fargo . Based on the 1996 film by Joel and Ethan...
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60 Years of ‘The Spy Who Came in From the Cold’–Adapted from a Center For Fiction conversation between Joseph Kanon and Paul Vidich , November 9, 2023 The Spy Who Came in From the...
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Shop Talk: Michael Farris Smith on Learning the Habit of WritingI cut my teeth on Larry Brown. If you’ve never heard of Larry before, let me introduce you by way of Michael Farris Smith. Both are Mississippi...
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Tis the Season to be (Fictionally) MurderedI’ve never been one for a beach read at the beach. Recently in Ventura and Monterey, I read a New-Jersey-set legal thriller (Robyn Gigl’s...
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All the (Crime) World’s a Stage: The Irresistible Pairing of Mysteries and the TheaterCrime writers utilize an extraordinarily wide range of back-grounds for their stories, but the stage is one of the most popular of them all....
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The Best Reviewed Books of the Month: November 2023Anna Pitoniak, The Helsinki Affair (Simon and Schuster) “Atmospheric, well-researched and packed with tradecraft,...
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The Grieving Mother Who Became An Angel of VengeanceOn January 24, 2014, Miriam Rodriguez received a call at 4 a.m. from her eldest daughter Azalea—a call that would change her and her...
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The Root of Evil: How a Grape Plague and Deceptive Dealing Changed the World of French Wine ForeverThe source of the great Burgundy deception was the shortage of wine caused by the destructive force of phylloxera. It made its first appearance...
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Beyond Treasure Island: A Brief Introduction to Pirates in FictionNot too long ago I found myself nearly alone in the Maritime wing of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. The Peabody Essex was formed from the...
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Parties Gone Wrong: A Beloved Trope in Crime FictionParties are terrible at the best of times. So much hope and anticipation is heaped onto them, they can never live up to the pressure, collapsing...
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7 Great Cozy Mysteries Set in the FallThere are so many reasons to love fall, from the splendor of the changing leaves to settling back into a comfortable routine after a hectic...
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On The Rise, Fall, and Seemingly Inexplicable Appeal of Golden-Age Sleuth Philo VancePhilo Vance—the creation of Willard Huntington Wright, writing as S. S. Van Dine—first appeared in 1926 and overnight became an American...
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Horror for the Holidays, Or, Scary Novels To Read While Being Nice to Your FamilyI find the holidays a good time for horror. Whether the festive season makes you happy or miserable, you can read about people who are...
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The Orchestral Stirrings of Death on the Down Beat, a Musician’s Murder MysteryDeath on the Down Beat , originally published in 1941, is subtitled “An Orchestral Fantasy of Detection.” This is a highly unusual detective...
