I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Westmoreland. He is a talented up-and-coming noir author. His debut book, A Violent Gospel, is available now from Shotgun Honey Books. About A Violent Gospel, the author writes: “The book is about two brothers, Mack and Marshall Dooley, who steal money from a snake-handling Pentecostal cult…

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Summer camp, boarding school, college—interesting places for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that they have as one of their founding principles the idea that you will, absolutely, leave them. In fact, leaving them is one of the main points. You will come to them as a stranger, bright, shiny, and anxious.…

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  A Note from Sena Desai Gopal The 86th Village takes place in a southern Indian village doomed to drown in the backwaters of a dam. The story and characters are fictitious, but the setting is autobiographical. My ancestral village, Yadahalli, will drown in one of India’s biggest dams—The Upper Krishna Project—across the 900-mile long…

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All These Bodies by Kendare Blake is an edge-of-your-seat YA mystery involving 16 bloodless bodies, two teenagers, and one impossible explanation that proves the truth is as hard to believe as it is to find. In the summer of 1958, a gruesome string of murders reshaped ordinary life in the Midwest. Corpses were found entirely…

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It’s fair to say we’ve both read or watched the best thrillers during the last thirty years. In our opinion, obviously! And there’s one thing we always agree on: what scares us the most is serial killer with clear motives and a detailed plan. A relentless murderer who won’t stop until they’ve realized their grand…

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In December 1957 and January 1958, nineteen-year-old Charlie Starkweather embarked on a killing spree through Nebraska and Wyoming. Most of the murders took place in just over a week, an eight-day rampage of shootings and stabbings that confounded authorities and terrorized the general public. With his even younger girlfriend in tow, Charlie killed eleven people,…

The post Midwestern Murders in the 1950s: Five Films Inspired by Starkweather/Fugate & Hickock/Smith appeared first on Criminal Element.

A Most Clever Girl is based on the life of the American communist spy Elizabeth Bentley. She was recruited in New York City at the beginning of World War II to fight against fascism. Elizabeth was a well-educated loner working in dead-end jobs. On a personal level, becoming a communist meant she suddenly had a…

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Author Peter Blauner discusses Christ in Concrete, an often-overlooked novel about the life of Italian immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1920s and a twelve-year-old boy who must support his family after his father’s untimely death. Most crime novels try to hook you on the first page, or even the first…

The post Crime at its Core: Looking Back at Pietro Di Donato’s <i>Christ in Concrete</i> (1939) appeared first on Criminal Element.

The Mad Women’s Ball by Victoria Mas is a critically acclaimed French novel of historical fiction, translated by Frank Wynne, that follows the mistreatment and dehumanization of women deemed “mad” and forced into imprisonment within a women’s asylum.  The Belle Epoque was a riot of culture and prosperity for the French Republic, with innovations in…

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I usually find mystery novellas to be fairly hit or miss, but I have very much enjoyed the holiday-themed collections Kensington puts out showcasing some of their finest cozy authors. This latest collection is frankly one of their best yet! Revolving around a murder at a Halloween party, each story here has the meat of…

The post Cooking the Books: <i>Halloween Party Murder</i> by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barbara Ross appeared first on Criminal Element.

The Missing Hours by Julia Dahl is a novel about obsession, privilege, and the explosive consequences of one violent act, where a violent sexual assault leads Claudia Castro down the painful road toward vengeance but also recovery. When Claudia Castro wakes up in her dorm room, she realizes quickly that something is very, very wrong.…

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Tori Eldridge is the author of The Ninja Daughter, The Ninja’s Blade, and The Ninja Betrayed (a 9/14/2021 release from Polis Books, $16.95). Tori’s been nominated for the Anthony, Lefty, and Macavity awards. She was also a film and stage performer. Tori was kind enough to speak with me about her work.   Q: Hello…

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Like any kind of writing, literary criticism must strive to find the most precise words to communicate what it wants readers to see as it deconstructs a narrative. That’s why vague words like “special” and “unique” are frowned upon; they fail to be specific. That said, both of them apply perfectly to Richard Chizmar’s Chasing…

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When Paloma was growing up in the Little Miracles Girls’ Home in Sri Lanka, all she wanted was to be adopted. She could hardly believe it when rich and beautiful Mr. and Mrs. Evans from San Francisco took an interest in her and wanted to take her home as their daughter. It felt like a…

The post Book Review: <em>My Sweet Girl</em> by Amanda Jayatissa appeared first on Criminal Element.

Chapter 1   Most of the media had already made up their minds. They were calling Wyatt Butler the worst serial killer in decades. Depraved. Evil. A twisted, calculated madman who had preyed on innocent children. News vans and angry members of the public packed Foley Square outside the New York County Courthouse on this,…

The post <em>The Stowaway</em> by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth: Featured Excerpt appeared first on Criminal Element.

My name is Tori—not the diminutive of Victoria, but an adaptation from the Viking god of thunder. If I were a character in your story, the origin of my name might reflect my personality and guide my mission. Whether you created me as Thor’s Earthly descendent with yet-to-be-discovered magical powers or a feminist hero battling…

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Now Friday, May 3 Leah The key is to go to a few different stores. I used to always go to Jerry’s Liquors on Bonifant Avenue. I was a regular. Too regular. Jerry’s mouth started to form a thin line when I’d come in. I could see the conflict on his face. He was glad…

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Sometimes Chief of Police Jesse Stone just has to wonder whether trouble is a given in his hometown of Paradise, Massachusetts. Local landowner Thomas Lawton III wants to sell a prime piece of beachfront real estate, known as The Throw, that two developers are none-too-politely salivating over. Billy Singer is a Vegas impresario looking for…

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In an unpredictable world, procedurals can be comforting. A cast of characters you know and love. the suspects’ photos on the bulletin board, all the “Where were you on the night of the murder?” inquiries, and the knowledge that caring, capable sleuths will solve the case before long helps us to sleep a little better…

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The title of Meg Tilly’s new thriller is evocative and intriguing—who is the heiress running from? Why is a wealthy woman on the lam? A vulnerable woman at the end of her rope is a trope that speaks to our deepest fears. We applaud a woman’s determination to leave a perilous situation while wishing no…

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