Kirkus:
Yes, Crime Fiction is Literature (and Other Observations on the Genre)
“In one of several essays on detective fiction, Borges observes that just as Oscar Wilde pointed out that the various rule-bound forms of poetry ‘prevent literature from being at the mercy of genius,’ the rules of crime fiction impose certain obligations on its writers. ‘Whether mediocre or awful,’ Borges writes, ‘the detective story is never without a beginning, a plot and a denouement. The literature of our times is exhausted by interjections and opinions… the detective story represents order and the obligation to invent.’”
How Sisters in Crime Is Helping to Diversify the Mystery World
“As a fundamentally popular genre (according to The Guardian, it recently became the bestselling genre in the United Kingdom, overtaking general and literary fiction in 2017) with the flexibility to tackle a whole range of themes, crime fiction can and should attract and retain a broad spectrum of writers and readers of all backgrounds and ages. That is not always the case, however.”
Is Noir Possible in Iraq? On International Crime Fiction, Part I
“As I read the stories in Baghdad Noir, many of which are set in Saddam-era Baghdad or after, I kept wondering how noir is possible in a place where violent deaths are a daily occurrence, where even the veneer of normalcy has already been shattered, and where reality seems darker than fiction.”
How a Mystery Bookstore Thrives in the Age of Amazon
“[A] few years ago, when a local yarn store went out of business, a group of knitters who used to meet there weekly asked Beamer if they could meet at her store instead. “Most knitters I know read books,” Beamer observed. She decided to keep the shop open until 8 p.m. on Fridays to accommodate them. More recently, Beamer has started to participate in off-site events in collaboration with other businesses and libraries.”
“I have to wonder if the category is belittled in part because it is perceived as a “feminine” genre, written primarily by women and for women and dealing with women’s issues and interests.”
What Classic Crime Novels Reveal About American Hopes and Fears
“Crime fiction is predicated on being able to show the reader what a society most fears, or who the bad guy is—whether it’s someone poor, or insane, or a free-thinking woman, or immigrants, or Nazis, or KGB agents. And what it fears changes over time, making these novels invaluable conduits to the historical moment in which they take place.”
Robert Harris Writes Thrillers—Even When He Doesn’t
Rediscovering Fantomas: The French Crime Novels Were Early Book-to-Film Adaptations
The Writer’s Life: How One Mystery Novelist Makes It All Work
Bouchercon: The Mystery World’s Annual Family Reunion
Agatha Christie: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Novelist
Beyond Nordic Noir: On International Crime Fiction, Part 2
Got 15 Minutes? Read a Crime Story
True Crime Tales: What Do We Learn From Them?
The Forensics of Historical Crime Fiction
Revisiting the ‘Crime of the (Last) Century’
CrimeReads:
It’s Time for More Period Dramas To Embrace the Diversity of People of Color
“Un-whitewashing the past also expands the notion of who we are today by making it increasingly difficult to maintain a nostalgic view of a ‘simpler’ time when everyone ‘knew their place,’ and to use that imagined reality to justify a narrow idea of authentic British or American identity.”
Wilkie Collins and the Prison of Marriage
“If the whole system was heavily weighted against women’s interests, how can we be so sure that the women participants in Collins’ life were ‘largely content’?”
Miss Sherlock is the Smartest, Most Intuitive Sherlock Holmes Adaptation We’ve Seen in Awhile
“What makes Miss Sherlock a standout is not just its frictionless adaptation of the mysteries into a new time and place—Japan in the present—but rather, its seamless reimagining of Sherlock and Watson and their relationship as a relationship between two women.”
Why Spiral Doesn’t Deserve To Be Compared to The Wire
“Spiral is fiction, and yet, under cover of a gritty, no-holds-barred “realism,” it is constantly making choices—bold ones for its white heroine and her comrades, and disappointing ones for the minorities who have the misfortune to people its vision of multi-ethnic France.”
Why Does It Matter Who Wrote Nancy Drew, Anyway?
“What was important was the author as a brand—a shortcut for readers to know that they were getting a consistent product—and arguably, in the case of Nancy Drew, a more consistent product than they might have received if Carolyn Keene had been a single individual.”
Finally, A New Children’s Book About Agatha Christie: An exciting find in a children's book landscape that rarely celebrates the heroines of genre fiction.
100 Years Ago, The World’s Biggest Action Start Was a Woman Named Pearl: The forgotten history of "Fearless Peerless Pearl" and the brief heyday of silent movie action heroines.
Celebrating Hitchcock’s Most Iconic Shots: The master of suspense could tell a whole story with a single visual.
Searching For Crime Fiction In Mumbai’s Beloved English-Language Bookstore: Bookstore Dispatch: Kitab Khana, Mumbai
Agatha Christie and the Case of the Unwieldy Adaptation: Christie knew when to stop writing a detective novel. Today's flashy adaptations over-embellish the source material.
What We Owe To Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White: On The 19th Century Origins of the Modern Psychological Thriller