Features

Jasper Fforde and Thursday Next

It’s nonstop metafictional fun and games in Fforde’s richly imagined BookWorld.
by Tom Nolan

How The Good Wife Became One of TV’s Best Shows

Is it the hot lawyers and office intrigue? The down-and-dirty Chicago politics? The infidelity-fueled domestic drama?
by Matt Zoller Seitz

David Dodge’s Sophisticated Crimes

Clever banter, glamorous locales, and intricate plots distinguish Dodge’s works, happily now back in print.
by Jon L. Breen

Kelli Stanley

Stanley uses two very different eras and settings—Roman Britain and 1940s San Francisco—to examine timeless issues of race, gender, and social justice.
by Oline H. Cogdill

Louis Bayard, The School of Night

A secretive society of intellectuals in Elizabethan England is at the center of Bayard’s literary-themed novel.
by Art Taylor

Spotlight on Crime: Mysteries in the Theater

The crime rate is booming in regional theater.
by Wm. F. Hirschman

Joseph Goodrich: Multimedia Man

This Edgar-winner has crime plays, poetry, lyrics, opera librettos, comics and short stories to his credit.
by Wm. F. Hirschman

The Murders in Memory Lane: Evan Hunter, Part II

Writing under his own name or as Ed McBain, Hunter’s imagination and love of writing never flagged throughout his long career.
by Lawrence Block

Joe Gores 1931-2011

A tribute to one of the leading exponents of Dashiell Hammett and the creator of the DKA novels.
by Kevin Burton Smith

What’s Happening With... John R. Riggs

The Garth Ryland mysteries feature sharp social commentary seasoned with the quirky details of small-town America.
by Brian Skupin

Departments

At the Scene

by Kate Stine

Mystery Miscellany

by Louis Phillips

Hints & Allegations

2011 Derringer Awards, 2011 Left Coast Crime Awards, 2011 Dilys Award, Writers on Reading: Donna Leon on The White War

The Hook

First Lines That Caught Our Attention

Eyewitness

Another shot from Hammett.
Kevin Burton Smith

Writing Life: Gormania

Kristine Kathryn Rusch, What Counts in Thrillers, Burt Reynolds
by Ed Gorman

Birds of a Feather Quiz

New Books

Blood for Wolves
by Michael Allan Mallory

Antiques Knock-Off
by Barbara Allan

Where the Ghost Walks
by Jo A. Hiestand

Reviews

Small Press Reviews: Covering the Independents

by Betty Webb

Very Original: Paperback Originals Reviewed

by Lynne Maxwell

Short & Sweet: Short Stories Considered

by Bill Crider

What About Murder? Reference Books Reviewed

by Jon L. Breen

Sounds of Suspense: Audiobooks Reviewed

by Dick Lochte

Mystery Scene Reviews

Miscellaneous

The Docket

Letters

Readers Recommend

Advertiser Index