Episodes

More and more, podcasts are owning the true crime genre. In Never Look Back, Alison Gaylin’s new mystery, the decades-old murder spree being investigated by Quentin Garrison for “Closure,” his true-crime podcast, is personal As if the story wasn’t real enough, Alison has written an episode of “Closure” … have a listen ... Read more »

In Murder in Bel-Air, the 19th installment in Cara Black’s arrondissement-specific series featuring Aimee Leduc, in addition to running her detective business and being a mom to Chloe, her infant daughter, Aimee is juggling a missing mother and the pursuit of a man from Cote d’ivoirie, the former French colony in Africa, who possibly holds... Read more »

In One Small Sacrifice, Hilary Davidson’s new crime fiction novel, NYPD Detective Sheryn Sterling suspects Alex Traynor—who suffers from PTSD owing to his time in war zones as a photojournalist—in the disappearance of his girlfriend Emily. After all, Sheryn has always suspected him in the death of another woman. But the case only looks straightforward.... Read more »

In Sean Carswell’s Dead Extra, post World War II Southern California is a dark and stormy place in spite of the sunshine. Jack Chesley Jr., presumed dead in the war, comes home to find out that his wife has died…and that’s not the worst of it

Darrell Henshaw, the protagonist of Blood on the Chesapeake, can’t help it if ghosts seek him out. But that doesn’t mean he has to welcome the otherworldly intrusions, either. The ghost reaching out to Darrell as he starts a new teaching and coaching position at a high school in Maryland, though, needs his help. And... Read more »

Lady’s maid Jane Prescott returns in Mariah Fredericks’ Death of a New American. The year is 1912 and the sinking of the Titanic casts a pall over the comings and goings of New York City’s social elite. The Benchleys, Jane’s employers, are worried that the wedding of their daughter Louise will be lost in the... Read more »

It’s important to remember what the wages of sin are as you read Rachel Howzell Hall’s They All Fall Down…

The thing about Van Shaw, Glen Erik Hamilton’s protagonist in Mercy River, the fourth installment in his series about the former Army Ranger, is that Van is very good at what he does. The issue is, what Van does so well usually involves lock picking, high-velocity projectiles and other assorted strategic mayhem

Jess Montgomery touches on many of the cross-currents buffeting the United States in the mid-1920’s in The Widows, the first novel in a new series featuring Lily Ross, the first woman sheriff in Ohio: women’s voting rights, Prohibition, the struggle to unionize at the mines, organized crime, child labor and educational inequality ... Read more »

In The Black Ascot, the 21st crime fiction novel from the writing team of Charles and Caroline Todd to feature Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge, a shell-shocked veteran of World War One, Rutledge is tasked with investigating an eleven-year-old cold case tracking down a man who’s been on the lam since the murder of a... Read more »

The warrior scientists of James Rollins’ Sigma Force are back in Crucible, a cautionary tale of modern witchcraft; in other words, advanced artificial intelligence, religious extremism and—just to make the story really interesting—quantum physics Photo of James Rollins ©James Rollins

In The Night Agent, Matthew Quirk’s new thriller, FBI Agent Peter Sutherland’s job is to sit by the phone in the White House’s Situation Room, hoping it doesn’t ring, but being ready to act if it does. It’s a job that’s boring…until it isn’t Photo of Matthew Quirk ©Mark Finkenstaedt

DCI Karen Pirie of Police Scotland is back in Val McDermid’s new crime fiction novel, Broken Ground. Karen, head of a cold case unit, has her work cut out for her with her new investigations: the roots of one were planted during World War II when the area of Scotland north of the Highlands was used by... Read more »

The idea behind High Crimes, Libby Fischer Hellmann’s new crime fiction novel—the fifth in her Georgia Davis series—percolated for a year after the current president was elected. “A year of rage is enough,” said Libby. Time for a new book

Wiggins is back in The Red Ribbon, H.B. Lyle’s second installment of the continuing story of Sherlock Holmes’ Irregular-in-Chief’s career in Britain’s MI-5

Firefly, Henry Porter’s new novel is a classic thriller—with a twist. Two groups—Paul Samson and MI-6 and an ISIS warlord and his posse—are in a race to see who gets to the target first. The twist is that the target is Naji, a 12-year-old Syrian boy, a refugee making his way from a camp on the... Read more »

A cataclysmic event, chance encounters, and unintended consequences collide in November Road, Lou Berney’s rolling tale of love, death and everything that comes in between Photo of Lou Berney ©Brandon Michael Smith

In Burning Ridge, Margaret Mizushima’s fourth Timber Creek K-9 mystery, Officer Mattie Cobb and Robo, her German Shepherd partner, are investigating the discovery of human remains in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains near the town of Timber Creek. It’s a deeply disturbing case from the very beginning — and then it turns personal... Read more »

Paris in the Dark, Robert Olen Butler’s fourth Christopher Marlowe Cobb thriller, is a story of violent acts of terrorism; weapons of mass destruction; waves of immigration driven by international strife; the clash of ideologies both political and religious; racial and gender oppression; dictators gaining and asserting power; and the media, by turns truth tellers... Read more »

In Swift Vengeance, T. Jefferson Parker’s second novel featuring PI Roland Ford, homegrown terrorists are targeting the drone pilots who flew bombing missions in Middle East Roland turns to a former colleague, FBI Agent Joan Taucher—who’s haunted by the 9/11 terrorists who lived in San Diego that she was unable to apprehend—for assistance

In The Middleman, Olen Steinhauer’s new novel, rising concern—fueled for the most part by right-wing media—about a left-wing resistance movement called Massive Brigade causes the FBI, which had been monitoring the organization, to put the investigation into hyperdrive Is Massive Brigade something to be feared? The answer is complicated.

What writer sends a character who’s pathologically afraid of the dark to a dark sky park? Fortunately for readers, Lori Rader-Day does just that in Under a Dark Sky Photo of Lori Rader-Day ©Iden Ford Photography

The inspiration for the murders that take place at the beginning of How It Happened, Michael Koryta’s latest mystery, come from a crime that impacted Michael, first as a teen in his hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, and then as a young reporter One of the delights of the story, though, is how Michael created Rob... Read more »

Writing as Ashley Dyer, Splinter in the Blood, is the debut novel from the crime fiction dream team of award-winning writer Margaret Murphy and forensics expert Helen Pepper And the story is a doozy. As former-CSI-turned-police Ruth Lake pursues the Thorn Killer,... Read more »