An Essay by Marcia Kiser (2003) All genre fiction provides a glimpse of life for the period in which the works are written. Science fiction shows the reader what the future may hold. Romance can, and does, give the reader insight into social customs and dress for the period covered, usually for a specific group, … Continue reading Nero Wolfe: A Social Commentary on the US
Tag: Non-Fiction
Why I Love Crime Fiction
By Leonard Chang What is a private detective but a philosopher in a trench coat? Picture this: You are a nine-year-old listening to your parents scream at each other in Korean, their words incomprehensible because you don't understand the language, but the savagery of their intent is clear enough. You don't want to leave your … Continue reading Why I Love Crime Fiction
Hardbroiled: A Review
Review by James R. Winter Hardboiled. Food. What's that make? Hardbroiled. Get it? OK, the cute play on words aside, this is a fitting title for a violent book about food. Everything from fasting at Ramadan to roadkill surprise is sampled here. There's even a food-obsessed serial killer in the book, although he's not a … Continue reading Hardbroiled: A Review
You say it’s your birthday?
100 Years of the Hard-Boiled American Private Eye (1922-2022) EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article, in slightly different form, first appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of Mystery Scene (#173), but it makes for a nifty intro to the upcoming panel at Bouchercon 2023 that I’ll be moderating, entitled “You Can’t Kill Me—Why the P.I. Won’t Die." Sadly, … Continue reading You say it’s your birthday?
Crime Fiction… With GUITARS!
Steve Wynn's Riding Shotgun Review by Kevin Burton Smith Okay, Riding Shotgun by singer/songwriter Steve Wynn is NOT a CD loaded with songs about private eyes. That would be too perfect. Still, with its pulpy artwork and the name-dropping of every hard-boiled crime writer from Dashiell Hammett to James Ellroy, you don't have to be a great … Continue reading Crime Fiction… With GUITARS!
“I Was Filled With a Sense of Loss and Longing.”
Chinatown Remembered By Fred Zackel June 20, 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of Chinatown in the USA. It is the finest private eye story that never came from a book first. A clue to any town, any city, any culture, any nation, is the stories it tells about itself, what stories it appropriates … Continue reading “I Was Filled With a Sense of Loss and Longing.”
With Autumn Closing In…
Night Moves Remembered By Daniel Moses Luft "Ain't it funny how the night moves When you just don't seem to have that much to lose? Ain't it funny how the night moves With autumn closing in?" - Bob Seger Arthur Penn’s 1975 film Night Moves is a mostly forgotten work of both pulp and 70s-style, … Continue reading With Autumn Closing In…
Another One Rides the Bus
Thrilling Detective, Jackson Donne & Me By Dave White Back in 1998, I sat in a computer lab on Rutgers University campus, searching for my next read. Yeah, I was an English major, but no, I wasn't searching out novels for my next class. I was looking for private eye fiction to read. I had … Continue reading Another One Rides the Bus
Magnum P.I. (v 2.4)
Dr. Goldberg Delivers His Diagnosis—and it’s Murder March 2023: Watching MAGNUM P.I. this season has been interesting from a story-telling and budget standpoint. I was hoping when the show moved from CBS to NBC, we'd see a creative retooling that abandoned the terrible bifurcated storytelling that I assumed was a side effect of COVID social-distancing … Continue reading Magnum P.I. (v 2.4)
Looking for Robert B. Parker
A Fond Farewell to the Man Who Saved P.I. Fiction By Cameron Hughes I just always assumed that detective novelist Robert B. Parker was immortal, like some kind of literary Highlander. It was actually easy to think so. Writing three books a year, he always seemed to have a new one out or on its … Continue reading Looking for Robert B. Parker