Episodes

When it comes to elements of a locked-room mystery, there isn’t any location much more atmospheric—or claustrophobic—than a submarine. A setting James Law uses to great advantage in his debut crime fiction novel, Tenacity Law knows of what he writes. He’s a former senior nuclear engineer in the Royal Navy Submarine Service. In... Read more »

According to Les Klinger, co-creator of Speaking of Mysteries, Bonnie MacBird’s Sherlock Holmes adventure, Art in the Blood, “has the three key ingredients for a delicious pastiche: Meticulous research, plausibility and grand fun!” Photo of Bonnie MacBird ©Ray Bengston

As if fans didn’t already know, there’s really nothing darker than the distaff side of crime fiction. One look at the choice of novels included in Women Crime Writer’s: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s & 50s and you’ll know there is no better guide to this harrowing region of the genre than Sarah Weinman Photo of... Read more »

There’s revenge on both sides of the equation—the killer and those who are hunting him—in The Dead Student, John Katzenbach’s taut new thriller Photo of John Katzenbach ©Nancy Doherty

The prolific mystery writer discusses how the work of Tony Hillerman inspired her to write the Constable Evan Evans series, toggling between her two current series—for which she produces at least one novel a year for each, the most recent being Malice at the Palace—adventures in book touring and the role of social media in her work

In The Scribe, Matthew Guinn’s new novel, a series of brutal murders in the black community threatens to put a pall over the 1881 International Cotton Exhibition being held in Atlanta Photo of Matthew Guinn ©charliegodbold godbold&company

Just who was Sherlock Holmes older brother? Of whom Sherlock once said, “sometimes he is the British Government”? And, perhaps more importantly, what led Mycroft to become the British Empire’s preeminent political fixer? In their novel Mycroft Holmes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse give us the tale of how Mycroft Holmes became who he was

Who better than a former FBI Agent specializing in counterterrorism and counterintelligence who, after retiring from the Bureau, went to work as a consultant for the Director of the CIA to write thrilling tales about a retired FBI agent who becomes a contractor for the CIA? Meet the creator of Hayden Stone … ... Read more »

By her own admission Hallie Ephron was late to the family business of writing, but mystery fans will agree that the wait was worth it From her first five novels, co-written with Donald Davidoff as G.H. Ephron, and her non-fiction works, to her standalone mysteries, the most recent of which is Night Night, Sleep Tight,... Read more »

In Rubbernecker, Belinda Bauer’s award-winning crime fiction novel, an anatomy student with Asperger’s Syndrome suspects that the cadaver he’s dissecting is the victim of murder. The problem is convincing the authorities before the evidence has been whittled away into bits and then cremated Photo of Belinda Bauer ©Johnny Ring

Are you ready for some football? Good. Because just in time for the 2015 NFL pre-season, comes Bill Syken’s debut mystery, Hangman’s Game, about punter Nick Gallow But you don’t have to be a football fan, or know much about the game, to appreciate the story—as well as the dark humor—of Hangman’s Game. Photo of Bill... Read more »

San Francisco’s first lady of Noir has her own tales of the City, including her most recent Miranda Corbie novel, City of Ghosts Kelli’s Noir cred goes beyond San Francisco of 1940, her other series, which features Arcturus, a physician of Roman Britain, began with Nox Dormienda, a nod to Raymond Chandler.

The past and the present collide in The Patriarch, Martin Walker’s new Bruno, Chief of Police mystery, when a suspicious death follows the 90th birthday celebration of World War II flying ace Marco Desaix, one of France’s national icons—and a boyhood hero of Bruno’s Photo of Martin Walker ©Klaus Einwanger

In Dry Bones in the Valley, a body is found in the spring thaw and another murder occurs not long after in the small town of Wild Thyme in rural Pennsylvania Tom Bouman’s protagonist, Henry Farrell—who has returned to the town to heal after a devastating loss of his own—needs to determine if the crimes relate to an... Read more »

Set in Las Vegas, the highly atmospheric, deeply noir Dragonfish, Vu Tran’s first mystery novel, takes its name from the Asian arowana, an endangered fish that’s supposed to bring good luck and keep evil away. But in the story of the intertwining lives of Robert, the Oakland cop, Suzy, his Vietnamese wife and Sonny, the Vietnamese gangster who... Read more »

According to Otto Penzler, the dean of the mystery fiction genre, a short story anthology is like going to a party: you’ll see some familiar names and have the opportunity to meet new ones

In The Redeemers, Ace Atkins’ newest crime novel, it’s the holidays and the about-to-be-ex Sheriff Quinn Colson encounters evil deeds and profound stupidity—and sometimes it’s hard to tell which is the more dangerous Ace also talks about writing for Garden & Gun, the award-winning magazine that covers the best of the South, including his essay... Read more »

Fina Ludlow is back in Brutality, Ingrid Thoft’s latest mystery about the thirtysomething Boston-based private investigator In a bit of a departure for Fina, she takes a case that doesn’t come through her family’s law firm. Initially, her dad isn’t happy about it. But then, when is Carl Ludlow, patriarch of the deeply dysfunctional... Read more »

The explosive events of the past set the stage for Robert Rotstein’s The Bomb Maker’s Son, the third in his Parker Stern series of mysteries Photo of Robert Rotstein ©Glen La Ferman

I, Ripper, Stephen Hunter’s version of the story of Jack the Ripper, is a bloody good take on the timeless tale. And we mean that in every way Readers of Stephen Hunter’s three series about the Swagger clan, know he’s a firearms’ savant. In our interview, Steve discusses the Howdah (below), an unusual... Read more »

In Little Black Lies, Sharon Bolton’s new stand-alone thriller that takes place in the Falkland Islands in the mid-1990s—twelve years after the invasion and subsequent war—three deeply damaged individuals confess to the same crime

In her foreword to the re-publication of Compulsion, Meyer Levin’s remarkable novel based on the 1924 Leopold and Loeb trial in Chicago, Marcia Clark—who knows a thing or two about “Trials of the Century”—reminds us that almost 60 years after its publication, Levin’s look at the justice system’s role in society continues to ring true... Read more »

In Pleasantville, Attica Locke picks up the story of activist-turned-environmental lawyer Jay Porter, who she introduced to us in her debut thriller, Black Water Rising In her own words, Attica was thrilled that Pleasantville was published when it was. You see, for the foreseeable future she plans to be otherwise engaged with another... Read more »

In Christopher Brookmyre’s latest, Dead Girl Walking, Jack Parlabane—his journalism career going nowhere fast—decides to do an old friend a favor and investigate the disappearance of her wild child rocker client