Crime fiction blogs worth investigating (part 8)
Part 8 of our series about crime fiction blogs you don’t want to miss is now live. Check them out and find new reading sources.
A Thrill A Week
An interesting blog by Cornell scientist, New Yorker and Westie lover Vicky Simon, who specialises – perhaps as you might expect – in forensic, medical and techno thriller series. Lots of juicy, straight-talking reviews to get your scalpels into.
Life of Cri.me
Lovely reviews from a voracious and passionate reader. It shows – when talking about the new Janet Evanovich, Jo says “Reading a new [Stephanie] Plum is like finding an old pair of jeans that you thought you’d lost, slipping them on and discovering a £5 note hidden in one of the pockets. Brilliant!
Crime Scraps Review
News, reviews and thoughts about crime fiction by Norman Price, a man with NOIR written through him like a stick of rock. Tremendous.
Crime Watch
This is a site mainly dedicated to crime fiction by New Zealand authors. Who knew there were so many? Queen of them all was obviously Ngaio Marsh, but see also Norman Berrow, Freda Bream, Elizabeth Messenger and Colin D Peel and many more. A full list awaits….
Jungle Red Writers
Billed as ‘seven smart and sassy crime fiction writers dish on writing and life’, the site’s emblazoned with scarlet nail polish instead of blood. All the contributors are published authors and there’s a really entertaining magazine feel about the site.
You may be interested to know that my 1997 book, ‘Criminal Sentences: True Crime in Fiction and Drama’ by Steve Haste, is now available in a corrected and revised ebook edition to download from Amazon. The work is the first complete study of the way true crimes and criminals are used by fiction writers and playwrights. It includes a history of the genre from the sixteenth century play, ‘Arden of Faversham’ to the end of the twentieth century. An A-Z section of true crimes gives basic facts of the cases and criminals, and a study of the novels, short stories and plays based on them. The ebook edition includes a hyperlinked contents page and index.
Maxim Jakubowski in ‘Time Out’ called the hardback edition ‘a fascinating reference book…A valuable bedside ride for fans and would-be writers alike’. Crime fiction author Martin Edwards says the author ‘writes in a concise style, and that’s a strength in this sort of reference book…If I read a “book about books”, I like to be pointed to unfamiliar titles that I might enjoy reading…Haste’s book does this in an unfussy and enjoyable way’.
I would be grateful if you could ‘plug’ the ebook on your website. Check it out on the Amazon site and read the sample pages.
Steve Haste