I chose these female characters for their agency. No man pushes them around. No man hems them in with their expectation of feminine behavior. And I noticed these five stories are all stand-alone novels. In most detective novels, the protagonist remains unchanged from...

Forensic investigations in television and movies, especially murders, tend to be fast and exciting. After a few twists in the story, the medical examiner (who was also picking up bullets at the crime scene) points to an innocuous spot on the victim’s head that clearly indicates the manner, time, place, and perpetrator of the murder.

Welcome to a fun take on Five Things, in honor of Father's Day! We are joined by novelists Beau L’Amour and Ryan Pote, each of whom share books and movies with connections to their dads. From Beau L’Amour: Five Books and Movies I Shared with My Father From before I...

In the world of mystery and crime series fiction, there are plenty of all-stars—your Spades and Marlowes, Spensers and Reachers, Milhones and Scudders and Boschs. They’re the characters who get put on the big (and small) screens, make the bestseller lists, and lodge...

Cozy mysteries got me through cancer. Maybe medical intervention did most of the work, but I spent over a year exhausted, foggy, and barely functioning. I’d lie on the couch devouring cozy mysteries about aristocrats, ancient Roman informers, or butterfly collectors,...

1) Motivation. Until I reach a critical mass with a project, there’s always the risk that I’ll lose interest or find napping to be a much more appealing activity. (Well, to be honest, it always is). So I needed to push through the first part of my mystery until...