Criminal Element

Criminal Element is a one-of-a-kind online hub designed for crime enthusiasts by fellow crime lovers. Our platform offers a variety of content, including book excerpts, reviews, essays from authors, Q&A sessions, and a range of weekly features along with original blog posts. We are committed to providing a diverse array of crime-related material, catering to tastes that range from light-hearted mysteries to intense noir and everything else in the genre. We maintain a publisher-neutral stance when it comes to the books, authors, and topics we choose to highlight and discuss.

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Book Review: A Girl Like Us by Anna Sophia McLoughlin

3 days ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Maya Sterling has pretty much clawed her way from the bottom to, if not quite the top, then certainly to a richly appointed room with a view. After an impoverished trailer park childhood, the beautiful young woman was cast on the reality show The Springs, about young people spending their summers flirting and fighting in the Hamptons.
Book Review: Little Mysteries by Sara Gran

2 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

In her first collection of short stories, Sara Gran explores what detective stories mean and why we need them. Keep reading for Doreen's review. When something is described to me as a metaphysical mystery, I know I’m going to be either highly entertained by intelligent storytelling (as I was here) or incredibly bored by self-conscious navel-gazing (which I thankfully wasn’t).
Book Review: Dead In The Frame by Stephen Spotswood

2 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

The previous book in the Pentecost and Parker series ended on a cliffhanger, with Will Parker coming back to 1948 New York City after a well-earned vacation, only to find her boss, celebrated private investigator Lillian Pentecost, being led away in handcuffs by the police. Lillian is being arrested for the murder of Jessup Quincannon, a man who, if he wasn’t quite her nemesis, certainly saw her as being his.
Cooking the Books: Bait And Swiss by Korina Moss

2 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

The last thing that cheesemonger Willa Bauer expects when she goes to the grand opening of Yarrow Glen, California’s new cake store is to run into her ex-fiance and ex-best friend. Pearce Brenner and Riley Stephens broke her heart a decade ago when the two fell in love while all three were working to open a chocolate store together.
Book Review: All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

2 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

In a not-too-distant future, yet another pandemic has sent the world into lockdown. But this deadly novel virus, with its 4% mortality rate, comes with a stunning twist. Those who survive emerge with a renewed lease on life, seeming almost enlightened as they shed their most negative feelings and embrace happiness instead. Teenaged Mariel Mudroch and her mother Gena are homeless when the virus known as Crown Royale first takes hold in America.
Cooking the Books: Fudge And Marriage by Nancy Coco

3 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Candy maker and hotelier Allie McMurphy has fought for so long to prove to the other inhabitants of Mackinac Island that she’s truly one of them. With her upcoming wedding to local police officer Rex Manning, she’s hoping to finally cement her insider status by holding a potluck reception open to all the islanders – never mind the fact that the only voice stating that she doesn’t belong is the one inside her head.
Book Review: The Mailman by Andrew Welsh-Huggins

3 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Glenn and Rachel Stanfield are your average well-off Indiana couple. Both have high-powered jobs and are active parents to their oldest daughter Abby, who’s away at boarding school near Chicago. But things haven’t been quite right between the couple lately. Glenn has been more irritable than usual, and talking about Abby while they’re preparing dinner one night sets him off:“I’m not shouting,” Glenn said, nearly shouting. “And isn’t what you’re saying, is I’ve made things too easy for her?
Book Review: A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling

3 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Deputy Sheriff Ben Packard has certainly gone through a lot since returning to Sandy Lake at the behest of its dying sheriff Stan Shaw. Packard just couldn’t say no when his mentor asked him to take on the role of acting sheriff. After Stan passed, Packard was persuaded to run for sheriff himself. He looked like a lock to win, until perhaps his worst deputy was induced to run against him. Unfortunately for Packard, former Deputy Howard Shepard had some powerful backers:And now Shepard was his boss.
Cooking the Books: Essence Of Foul Play by Daryl Wood Gerber

4 weeks ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Emma Brennan knows that it’s a little ironic that she’s a bundle of nerves ahead of the opening of her new spa, Aroma Wellness, in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. She and her business are intent on offering serenity and positivity to their clientele, via both traditional spa offerings and services that are more off the beaten track, like aromatherapy and sound baths.
Book Review: Trust Issues by Elizabeth McCullough Keenan & Greg Wands

1 month ago | criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan

Siblings Kagan and Hazel Bailey are almost uniquely 21st-century failures. Born into inherited wealth on their mother Janice’s side, their little family endured the abuse of patriarch Charles until he keeled over from a massive heart attack at the age of fifty-eight. No one was particularly sad to see him go, but Janice subsequently took the opportunity to remake herself as an independent woman. At first, Kagan and Hazel were thrilled to see their mother come out of her shell.