Posts Tagged: crime fiction

Justice Never Sleeps by author Bob Forward

The Owl books were a lot of fun to write. The concept of a private detective who didn’t sleep spawned itself almost naturally from my lifestyle at the time. I was young enough (and dumb enough) so that I would routinely stay awake for three nights in a row. I’m sure you’ve been there. You start by pulling an all-nighter for some test or work deadline. Then you stay up a second night celebrating the successful completion of aforementioned test or deadline. At which point, you are running on fumes and probably not making the best decisions. So you decide to stay up a third night just to see if you can do it. Justice Never Sleeps Somewhere in there (probably during one of those... more

Read More of THE OWL: Pulling the Ultimate “All-Nighter”

Our guest blogger Naomi Hirahara is the award-winning author of the mysteries featuring gardener-sleuth Mas Arai: Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, Blood Hina, and the Edgar Award-winning Snakeskin Shamisen. Hirahara is the past president of the Southern California chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Today she talks about how much she loves Barbara Neely's Blanche on the Lam. Before Mma Precious Ramotswe came on the American scene, there was another “traditionally built” sleuth who had been introduced to mystery readers here--Barbara Neely’s Blanche White, an African-American housekeeper in the South who is on the run for writing some bad checks in the first book in the... more

Read More of How “Blanche On the Lam” Inspired Naomi Hirahara

There are scores of professional writers out there who sell huge numbers of crime novels, tie-ins and westerns, and yet are virtually unknown...because they toil as work-for-hire authors. One of those writers is Robert Vaughan, who has sold 40 million books, mostly westerns. He was interviewed about his under-the-radar career recently and he's pretty frank about his lack of celebrity. I have written well over 400 books. If I had written every one of those books under my own name, Robert Vaughan would be a name that is immediately recognized. I would have established something of value that my survivors could capitalize on after I die…In my life time, I have probably sold 40 million... more

Read More of The Laborers of Work-for-Hire Crime Fiction Writing

Low End Of Nowhere by author Michael Stone

For fans of crime fiction, it’s both satisfying and slightly surreal to see a new book in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series on the New York Times Bestseller List. More than four years after Parker’s death, his private eye lives on through the talents of Ace Atkins. Seeing the latest Spenser thriller, Cheap Shot, on the bestseller list made us think of how lucky readers are to get a little more of Spenser– and think of some of the other fantastic thriller series’ that ended too soon.... more

Read More of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser Series And Others That Ended Too Soon

From gritty detectives to hard-boiled bounty hunters, men might be the face of crime fiction – but any fan of the detective genre knows that women are the heart of it. Female thriller authors have been shaping the mystery genre since it started, breaking ground with bestselling books and beloved heroines. These ladies of crime fiction prove that no bad guy stands a chance when it comes to girl power. Agatha Christie's Groundbreaking Mysteries The biggest, baddest female crime fiction writer of them all, Agatha Christie hasn’t just sold more mysteries than any other author – she’s sold more books than any other author in history. Christie was instrumental during that Golden Age of... more

Read More of Female Thriller Authors Bring Girl Power to Crime Fiction