Sarah Weinman

New York

Writer and Editor at Freelance

Crime Fiction Columnist at The New York Times

No longer here. Crime Lady. Columnist, @nytimesbooks. Author, SCOUNDREL & THE REAL LOLITA. Editor, EVIDENCE OF THINGS SEEN, etc. Working on new stuff.

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Articles

The Month's Best New Crime Fiction

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Sarah Weinman

Our columnist on the month's best releases. Image Sometimes you know immediately that a book is going to get under your skin and stay there.
Classic Private-Eye Detective Novels: A Starter Pack

1 month ago | news.nestia.com | Sarah Weinman

Classic Private-Eye Detective Novels: A Starter Pack Our crime columnist recommends books starring hard-boiled investigators who are ready to travel down the meanest streets to root out the darkest truths. By Sarah Weinman March 19, 2025 When the hard-boiled private-eye detective story was born about a hundred years ago, the United States was a few years removed from a pandemic, grappling with Prohibition and reeling from the influences of far-right ideology on government.
For These Women, It’s Kill or Be Killed

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Sarah Weinman

For These Women, It’s Kill or Be KilledKills Well With Others By Deanna Raybourn In Raybourn’s “Killers of a Certain Age” (2022), four female assassins on a celebratory retirement cruise discovered their lives were in danger. It was a fresh and fun adventure with a steel-toed kick. Now the quartet returns in the equally delightful KILLS …
Without Consent

1 month ago | judithdcollinsconsulting.com | Sarah Weinman |Judith Collins

A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a CrimeISBN: ‎ 978-0063279889Publisher: Ecco Publication Date: 11/11/2025Format: Other My Rating: TBR From Sarah Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, comes an eye-opening story about the first major spousal rape trial in America and urgent questions about women’s rights that would reverberate for decades.
4 New Detective Novels Worth Investigating

2 months ago | flipboard.com | Sarah Weinman

Suspense roundup: Novel reimagines golden age of Agatha Christie and other female detectivesEveryone knows Agatha Christie. But what about the other women authors who flourished during the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction” in the 1920s and …
In These 4 Novels, the Detectives Have Killer Instincts

Jan 13, 2025 | nytimes.com | Sarah Weinman

Image A veteran best-selling legal thriller writer has a new book out this month featuring his signature defense attorney character. No, not that one - I mean James Grippando, who, over a 30-year career, has written 19 books starring the criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck.
The Best Crime Novels of 2024

Dec 3, 2024 | nytimes.com | Sarah Weinman

I've long believed that crime fiction runs along a spectrum between order and chaos, where the two seemingly disparate states are always intertwined, ever-changing, never settled. It makes sense that a genre offering a window into the way we really function in society and behave with one another would embrace constraints while also constantly subverting them.
Unraveling the 50-Year Mystery of the Body in the Basement

Dec 1, 2024 | rollingstone.com | Sarah Weinman

I t’s a hot summer night in 1969, and for those of a certain age — young enough to turn on, tune in, drop out — Steve Paul’s the Scene is your place. As a spectator, a musician, a hanger-on. A place where the music comes first, even if you do end up scoring dope or going home with somebody. The line to get in stretches all the way down West 46th Street and around the corner to Eighth Avenue.
Unraveling the 50-Year Mystery of the Body in the Basement

Dec 1, 2024 | flipboard.com | Sarah Weinman

The Beatles' children: Who are they and what do they do? - Liverpool EchoThe Beatles' children: Who are they and what do they do? Some have went on to have music careers of their own The Beatles are one of the most …
"Trial by Ambush," by Marcia Clark, Revisits the Barbara Graham Murder

Nov 29, 2024 | airmail.news | Sarah Weinman

Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham by Marcia Clark Marcia Clark didn’t need to write this book, and she says as much in the introduction. Three decades removed from the trial that catapulted her to enduring fame—Clark was the lead prosecutor in the O. J. Simpson murder case—she has written nine novels and now works on appellate cases.