Five Reinventions of the Boston Crime Novel How to account for the popularity of Boston as a setting for crime fiction? There’s the city’s checkered history of real-life crime, from the Brinks truck job to the Gardner Museum heist to the tragic Boston Marathon bombing of 2013. Then there’s the Hub’s rogues gallery of larger-than-life […]

Eight Outer Banks Locations Guaranteed to Add Chills to Your Vacation   For many American families, the words Outer Banks are synonymous with nostalgia and summer family fun. From historic lighthouses and mountainous sand dunes to wild horses and enchanting maritime forests, these narrow barrier islands along the east coast of North Carolina have something […]

“You mean I’m not perfect?” Celebrate those idiosyncrasies in your favorite sleuths… The “Defective Detective” trope in fiction and media is often viewed negatively. Some readers believe it does a disservice to normalizing mental illness, and many feel it might add to the stigma surrounding sufferers.  Below are five detectives whose mental illness acts not […]

DVD Review– The Palermo Connection   The Italian-language miniseries The Palermo Connection centers around twin themes: first, that it is impossible to escape your past, and second, that it is impossible to escape your conscience.   When Angelo Caronia (Riccardo Scamarcio), a talented but arrogant investigator for the Italian police, alienates his superiors and is […]

Can a House be Character in a Novel? We have ten sinister homes for you…   Some of my favorite thrillers and mysteries are set in houses that could be characters in their own right. From the gothic decaying estates to the Art Deco clifftop mansions, these are my top ten thrillers that feature the […]

The Ties that Bind: Ten of the Best Family Mystery Novels The first and most vital relationships we have are with our families. Our roles within our home life shape who we become as an adult, and it’s no secret that “sister,” “mother,” “wife,” or “daughter” carry certain expectations of behavior. Sacrifice. Nurture. Don’t ruffle feathers.  […]

Writers’ Police Academy Wrap-Up What happens when you take the pen out of a writer’s hand and replace it with a pistol (or a Taser or a police baton)?  At a public safety school in Wisconsin where real training happens for police trainees, I found out. The 10th annual Writers’ Police Academy brought writers from […]

The Mystery of the Future and Why We Are Fascinated by It Going Wrong   Some futures are nearer and easier to predict than others. If someone hurls a banana your way, you anticipate its trajectory in order to duck, or to catch it, depending on your abilities, and the speed and condition of said […]

Songs to Steal By There is no shortage of songs about New York, from the classic to the cheesy to the tourist board approved, but this is a different New York, half myth and half grit, of crowded streets, deserted alleys, strip clubs, underground gambling joints, after hours bars and restaurants where English is spoken […]