Episodes

Who better than Ross Macdonald biographer Tom Nolan to edit what we can only hope is the first of many anthologies of the California noir great’s mysteries for The Library of America? Photo of Tom Nolan ©David Strick

The Glasgow Trilogy—The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, How a Gunman Says Goodbye and The Sudden Arrival of Violence—is a trio of crime fiction tales told from the other side of the law The first installment in Malcolm Mackay’s Glasgow Trilogy, The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter, was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey... Read more »

Exotic doesn’t even begin to describe the setting of The Strangler Vine, M.J. Carter’s debut crime fiction novel: India in the mid-1830’s complete with tiger hunts, bags of jewels and the pursuit of the mysterious Thuggee cult through the jungles and along the Grand Truck Road Photo of M.J. Carter ©Roderick Field

In 1982 when most female characters in mystery fiction were femme fatales, victims or nosy neighbors, Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski started investigating on the mean streets of Chicago Sara talks about how characters reveal things about themselves, as was the case with V.I.’s close friend Lotty in her current Critical Mass, her tenure... Read more »

According to Cat, when she learned about the Edgar Award nomination for her stand alone mystery, The Day She Died, the Scottish crime fiction writer lost complete control of her dialect and wrote to a U.S. editor that she was “chuffed as little mince balls” Les Klinger and I also spoke to Cat about her Dandy... Read more »

The Stolen Ones, Owen Laukkanen’s fourth installment of the Stevens and Windermere series, goes down some very, very dark roads as the pair of investigators criss-cross the U.S. hunting down human traffickers And Owen Matthews, Laukkanen’s literary alter-ego, joins us to talk about his recently released YA crime fiction novel, How to Win at... Read more »

It’s not just the murder of a Hasidic woman in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood that newbie journo Rebekah Roberts is on the trail of in Invisible City, Julia Dahl’s Edgar Award–nominated debut mystery Photo of Julia Dahl ©Chasi Annexy

The course of Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett’s life never did run smooth. With his daughter April in grave condition in a Billings, Montana hospital and his best friend Nate Romanowski missing, Joe has a full plate in C.J. Box’s latest, Endangered And then there’s also the 21 dead sage grouse… Find out more... Read more »

Where All Light Tends to Go, David Joy’s debut novel, explores an Appalachian Noir realm where fate and hope collide Is there a choice between the worlds of drugs and murder or love and redemption for Jacob McNeely? Photo of David Joy ©Alan Rhew

The author of the Eve Diamond series of mysteries, editor of volumes one and two of Los Angeles Noir anthologies of short stories whose settings are in Southern California and contributor to In the Company of Sherlock Holmes anthology of short stories talks about mysteries, the dark side of sunny SoCal beaches and perfume ... Read more »

In Dead Is Better, murder victim Charlie Stone’s confusion is mitigated by Rose, his new-found afterlife canine companion Dead Is Better is available in e-book and in print.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh’s debut novel, the story revolves around what happens in the aftermath of a brutal crime rather than the search for a solution Photo of M.O. Walsh ©Sam Gregory Photography Click on thumbnail above to see the schedule for M.O. Walsh’s appearances.

Before He Finds Her features the well-cultivated “creep factor” that every psychological suspense novel needs Ramsey Miller’s plan to have a block party for the end of the world sounded like a good one, at least to him. Until his wife and—at least everyone thought—his daughter were murdered. Except his daughter survived and has... Read more »

Justice, poetic and otherwise, is one of the things being sought in The Carrier, the most recent addition to Sophie Hannah’s Zailer and Waterhouse series of crime novels Sophie Hannah, a self-described “structure freak,” talks about the common ground shared by poetry and crime fiction, an event that happened to her that inspired part... Read more »

What could possibly go wrong when Raf—who happens to suffer from a circadian rhythm disorder—the world of pirate radio and the drug-infused world of dance raves in South London find themselves caught in the crossfire between an unscrupulous mining company and a cadre of Burmese revolutionaries? In Glow, lots. Ned thoughtfully provided an... Read more »

Jane Whitefield is back in A String of Beads, the latest installment in the Edgar Award winning author’s series about the woman who helps people disappear Find out more about Tom and his novels at his website. Photo of Thomas Perry ©Jo Perry

A special Christmas edition with the author of Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart, the most recent addition to the unique series of procedurals Photo of Christopher Fowler © En Route Photography

The hunt for the identity of the skeleton of the title of The Skeleton Road, Val McDermid’s newest stand-alone novel, takes readers through both time and geography: from the ruins of a Victorian building in Edinburgh and Radcliffe Camera in Oxford to Zagreb, Croatia; from a contemporary United Kingdom to the bloody Balkan war of... Read more »

In The Convert’s Song, Sebastian Rotella picks up the story of Valentín Pescatore, first introduced in Triple Crossing With his time patrolling The Line, as the border between San Diego and Tijuana is known, now in the past, ProPublica.com’s award-winning investigative journalist Sebastian Rotella’s Pescatore has relocated to Buenos Aires and joined forces... Read more »

Private investigator Juniper Song returns in Beware, Beware, Steph Cha’s second mystery novel Drugs, celebrities, artists and murder collide in Los Angeles’ neighborhoods from Hollywood and Beverly Hills to Koreatown in Steph Cha’s latest novel. Photo of Steph Cha ©Susie Cha

Scottish crime writer Robertson takes a break from the mean streets of Glasgow—the site of his series—for The Last Refuge, his stand alone mystery that takes place in the Faroe Islands Although Scotland has no shortage of remote islands battered by lashing seas, Craig Robertson sets his latest in the Faroes, hundreds of... Read more »

According to the critic of mysteries and thrillers for The Wall Street Journal, we are in a Golden Age of crime fiction Who better to discuss the state of mysteries and thrillers than a critic who specializes in the genre? The topics Tom discusses run the gamut:... Read more »

Sweet Sunday, John Lawton’s newly published stand alone novel, is a mystery wrapped inside of an odyssey that jumps through time and geography, starting and ending in New York City in the late ’60s Photo of John Lawton ©Nick Lockett

Murder, dismemberment, stalking and blackmail are all part of the journey The Forgers takes through the territory where love and books overlap. If the first five words of The Forgers—”They never found his hands.”—don’t intrigue you, you might want to check to see if you have a pulse. Photo of Bradford Morrow ©Jessamine... Read more »