fiction1
The Case for ‘The New Adventures of Ellery Queen’

One of the greats of the mystery genre, too little appreciated these days, is Ellery ...

books
More Imaginative Than Insightful: ‘The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty,’ by Amanda Filipacchi

There are three interrelated plot strands to The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty, a hi...

mysteries
Atkinson to Portray Maigret in Upcoming ITV Films

Hot on the heels of the return to print in the United States of Belgian writer George Si...

books
Cultural Tide Beginning to Turn? ‘Golden Age’ Mystery Outselling Contemporary Bestsellers

In a year of unsettling cultural stories—from the Ray Rice domestic abuse video to Rob...

books
Lister Mystery Novels Available for Free

I've just discovered that a digital edition of three mystery novels by contemporary autho...

mysteries
Murder Yesterday and Today: The Stakes Were Higher Then

While reading a mystery novel from the "golden age" of detection, the 1920s to the early '...

genres
‘Gracepoint’ a Worthy Remake of Ambitious British TV Crime Drama Series

My attitude toward genre fiction is that it's best when the creator is satisfied to make g...

culture101
A Book for October: Ellery Queen’s ‘The Egyptian Cross Mystery’

October is, of course, a good month to read horror fiction, given the obvious connection t...

literature-2
Melville Davisson Post’s Mysteries: Relief for Those Weary of Excessive Darkness

Many readers find modern genre fiction to be excessively "dark" and depressive, and for go...

books
Pirog’s Thomas Prescott Novels: Good, and Getting Better

Nick Pirog’s Thomas Prescott novels are worth reading just to watch a writer learning hi...

books
Fifteen Impossibilities: A Book Review

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE: Further Problems of Dr. Sam Hawthorne — By Edward D. Hoch — Int...

mysteries
Dark, Gritty ‘Mirror Image’ Offers Psychological Mystery-Suspense

Dennis Palumbo’s novel Mirror Image is the first in a series of books about Dr. Daniel...

genres
Billy Wilder’s “Witness” and the Pleasures of Genre Fiction

A commenter going by the cybernom of Pascal Fervor has made some interesting and  pro...