CrimeReads

CrimeReads is a dedicated website for those who feel that suspense is at the heart of storytelling. It caters to readers who understand that asking questions is just as vital as finding answers, and who enjoy the excitement of a gripping book. This platform serves as a reliable destination for discovering exceptional writing in the realms of crime, mystery, and thrillers—genres that are thriving yet widely spread out. Similar to its sister site, Literary Hub, CrimeReads organizes and highlights a daily selection of top-notch content, creating a digital hub where readers and authors can connect and interact. With the support of its editorial partners, CrimeReads offers a trustworthy source for insightful and entertaining writing about the literary culture that captivates its audience. Each day, readers can explore original articles and exclusive excerpts, as well as featured editorial pieces from various partners within the crime literature community, including publishers, bookstores, non-profits, librarians, and more.

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Articles

How to Improvise a Locked Room Murder Mystery

1 week ago | crimereads.com | Bianca Marais

You know that scene from The Lion King where the hyenas keep repeating Mufasa’s name to give themselves the heebie-jeebies? If you want to see mystery and thriller writers react similarly, quote the famous EL Doctorow quote. “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”Article continues after advertisementMost crime writers I know don’t want to navigate in the fog with just their headlights to guide them.
Malka Older on Using Genre to Explore New Ideas

1 week ago | crimereads.com | Alex Dueben

As a writer Malka Older is known for her science fiction series The Centenal Cycle. She is also an aid worker and sociologist, the Executive Director of Global Voices, and a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University. In 2023 she launched a new series, The Investigations of Mossa and Pleiti, which is s science fiction mystery set on Jupiter. It’s also a second chance romance between a police investigator and an academic who in the first book are thrown together years after they broke up.
The Joy of Murder

1 week ago | crimereads.com | Allison Brennan

Readers, it’s time to get serious and be honest with ourselves. Take a deep breath — inhale, exhale — and admit: we might be just a little bit twisted. Not in a Hannibal Lecter or Buffalo Bill kind of way. More in a, “Oooh, that murder was cleverly plotted” kind of way. You wouldn’t be reading this essay if you didn’t enjoy crime fiction. Let’s be real: that obsession didn’t start last week. Article continues after advertisementFor me, it began in childhood.
Caroline Fraser On Serial Killers, Lead Poisoning, and Other Midcentury Disasters

2 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Molly Odintz

Caroline Fraser won the Pulitzer Prize for the biography Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, then turned her creative and capable hand towards an altogether different subject matter: the proliferation of serial killers at a time of ubiquitous lead poisoning, and the rapid decline of both environmental lead pollution and extreme violence against strangers. In particular, Frasier zooms in on the Pacific Northwest as her horrifying case study.
Frederick Forsyth: An Editor’s Remembrance

2 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Neil Nyren

I became Frederick Forsyth’s editor late in his career; his sales had dipped a bit since the brilliant successes of books like The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File; and his agent hoped we could pep them up. Article continues after advertisementFor our first manuscript, The Afghan, in 2006, Freddie had a request: Could I fly to London and meet with him and his British editor? That way, we could not only meet, but he would end up with just one set of notes.
S.A. Cosby on “King of Ashes,” Crime Epics, and the Softer Side of Monsters

2 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Nick Kolakowski

Earlier this year, crime fiction author S.A. Cosby wrote in The New York Times that “every crime and mystery writer has four types of novels they will inevitably write in their career: a murder mystery, a heist novel, a novel of revenge—and a serial killer novel.” Article continues after advertisement Cosby’s initial trio of novels hit three of those themes: “Blacktop Wasteland” was a saga of fierce heists and high-speed getaways, while “Razorblade Tears” followed two fathers on a mission of...
Smoke and Mirrors and Matchstick Men

3 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Olivia Rutigliano

Matchstick Men, Ridley Scott’s 2003 caper, is a film about a lot of things: small cons, big cons, guilt, anxiety, mental illness, family,Article continues after advertisementIt’s the story of Roy (Nicolas Cage), con artist with a chainsmoking habit, an extremely intense obsessive compulsive disorder, and high anxiety. When he runs out of his (illegally obtained) meds (and occasionally when he doesn’t), these conditions get in the way of his ability to work.
Megan Abbott on Criminal Conspiracies in the Fallen Suburbs

3 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Dwyer Murphy

In Megan Abbott’s suburbia, there are always darker forces at play. In her new novel, El Dorado Drive (G.P. Putnam, June 24, 2025), a feeling of loss and decline permeates the once prosperous community of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, the author’s own hometown. The auto industry has lost its sheen. The country clubs are hotbeds of anxiety, stirring up questions about who lost a job this month, whose bills are past due. A group of women in the community have turned to one another for support.
Wait What: Why is it called Murder by Numbers When There Are No Numbers?

3 weeks ago | crimereads.com | Olivia Rutigliano

Welcome to “Wait, What?,” a recurring column in which we examine confusing or incoherent details in crime movies. Article continues after advertisementI say this just having watched Murder by Numbers… why is it called Murder by Numbers? This movie has nothing to do with numbers. Forget murdering by numbers… I’ve never seen a movie that has less to do with numbers of any kind than Murder by Numbers. I’m talking about the 2002 film starring Sandra Bullock, Ryan Gosling, Michael Pitt, and Ben Chaplin.
James Lee Burke on the Highs and Lows of American History

3 weeks ago | crimereads.com | David Masciotra

James Lee Burke is one of the most prolific authors in the United States. Averaging a book a year throughout his sixty-years in literature, he is also one of the most profound, riveting, and stylistically beautiful. His new novel, Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie, acts as both a companion to his other work, exploring violence and the quest for justice through the lens of a courageous protagonist. It is also a departure, demonstrating that Burke is still full of surprises.