The appeal of the procedural is built upon a simple human desire: we love to solve problems, and we love to watch others solve them. Even better when solving a problem feels like revealing a hidden connection beneath the skin of the world.
Though her knitwear patterns had previously been published in books and magazines, Reagan Davis was ready to spin a different kind of yarn.
A longtime fan of the cozy mystery - wholesome whodunits more in the vein of Agatha Christie than John Grisham - the Ontario-based Davis decided to self-publish the first three books in her "Knitorious Murder Mysteries" series.
We all read crime novels, and all crime novels feature guns (more or less). When I got to work on my own crime novel-my first, after cutting my teeth on Napoleonic spy thrillers-I wanted to make sure I knew my stuff. It's a contemporary heist thriller about counterfeiting, art forgery, neo-Nazis and a horseback-Amtrak train robbery. Guns are involved. Read more
Murder is a grisly, nasty business...except in the cozy mystery subgenre, where bloodless murders are the order of the day. If the words "cozy" and "murder" sound like an oxymoron when used in the same sentence, you're not alone. The subgenre can seem downright baffling to outsiders at first glance. There is, however, a method to the madness.
In a novel, an effective setting transports the reader, immersing them in the narrative and creating a believable physical environment where plot can flourish. Read more
The average victim of a kidnapping is dead less than 48 hours from the point of abduction. Captivity is an unusual choice for a murderer, both in life and in fiction. It requires resources, introduces variables, and produces a bizarre form of intimacy. What scares us most about captivity-centered narratives is that they break the immediacy and predictability of even the grisliest murders. Read more
The ring of the doorbell, the pop of a champagne cork, a peal of laughter from another room. Wicked gossip, a meaningful glance across the dining table, a knife secreted in a napkin. The host must step away for just a moment to take an urgent phone call, would you all keep yourselves occupied? No, nothing is the matter. Unless something is?
In 1859, workers at a dock in New York City noticed that a barrel that had been shipped into town smelled particularly foul and decided to open it up. Read more
In a follow to Monday's (August 30) update on the United States' market, NPD BookScan's research team has released a genre-specific look at the thriller and suspense category, finding that US sales have dropped six percent in the last year. Read more
‘I always quote Kurt Vonnegut. He said in the early part of his career he was dismissed as a science fiction writer and that critics tend to put genre books, including sci-fi, in the bottom drawer of their desk... It's true. I get the New York Times every Sunday. In 37 novels, I've never had a stand-alone review. I'm always in the crime round-up.
A survey of 787 members of the Society of Authors (SoA) has found that a third of translators and a quarter of illustrators have lost work to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Translators are also more likely to use AI to support their work, with 37% of respondents saying they have done so, followed by 25% of non-fiction writers.
The author Lynne Reid Banks, known for her novel The L-Shaped Room and her children's book series The Indian in the Cupboard, has died at the age of 94.
I launched my podcast Making It Up nearly three years ago with the goal of interviewing writers not for any particular work of theirs, but to talk to them about their lives. I didn't want to ask them what famous author they want to have dinner with or what their top five favorite books are ... yech. Read more
Until we have a mechanism to test for artificial intelligence, writers need a tool to maintain trust in their work. So I decided to be completely open with my readers