• Not being an Apple TV+ subscriber, I haven’t yet begun watching Lady in the Lake, the seven-part series based on Laura Lippman’s 2019 novel of that same title. But it premiered last Friday, July 19. The Guardian offers the following plot synopsis: This is the story of two Baltimore women in the 1960s: affluent white Jewish housewife and mother Maddie Schwartz [played by Natalie Portman] and Black, all-but-single mother Cleo [Moses Ingram] who is working three jobs to try to lift herself and her children out of the life of struggle that otherwise beckons, and away from the temptations and dan ..read more

Organizers of the 2024 Killer Nashville conference have announced their line-ups of finalists for this year’s Silver Falchion Awards, in 17 categories—not all of them crime-fiction related. Here are the nominees for Best Mystery: • Mouse in the Box, by Lewis Allan (Stretched Studio) • Indigo Road, by Reed Bunzel (Coffeetown Press) • Beautiful Death, by John Deal (Dark Lake Press) • Secrets Don’t Sink, by K.B. Jackson (Level Best) • BeatNikki’s Café, by Renee James (Amble Press) • The Empty Kayak, by Jodé Millman (Level Best) And below are the candidates for Best Investigator honors: • When ..read more

The Strand Magazine has announced the nominees for its 2024 Critics Awards. The Best Novel category is short of surprises; however, the Best Debut list includes a few works of rather less familiarity. Best Mystery Novel: • All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron) • Everybody Knows, by Jordan Harper (Mulholland) • Small Mercies, by Dennis Lehane (Harper) • Resurrection Walk, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown) • Prom Mom, by Laura Lippman (Morrow) • Time’s Undoing, by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton) • The Secret Hours, by Mick Herron (Soho Crime) Best Debut Mystery: • Fadeaway Joe, by Hugh Les ..read more

Critiquing some of the most interesting recent crime, mystery, and thriller releases. Click on the individual covers to read more ..read more

Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye (Simon & Schuster UK), described by The Guardian as “a ‘boundary-pushing take on the police procedural’ which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case,” has won the 2024 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. That announcement was made last evening, at the opening of this year’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. The other five well-reviewed novels contending for the Theakston prize were The Last Dance, by Mark Billingham (Sphere); The Secret Hours, b ..read more

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers (IACW) has announced that Crook Manifesto, by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday), has won its 2023 Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing. The four other novels vying for that award were Night Letter, by Sterling Watson (Akashic); Stealing, by Margaret Verble (Mariner); The Quiet Tenant, by Clémence Michallon (Knopf); and The Almost Widow, by Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Harper Avenue). The IACW has handed out this honor—named, of course, for author Dashiell Hammett—every year since 1991. Previous recipients incl ..read more

If Miss Moneypenny can have her own James Bond spin-off series, then why not Q, head of the British Secret Service’s research and development division? The Book Bond highlights plans to introduce Q as the main protagonist in Quantum of Menace, which is being written by Vaseem Khan, an acclaimed crime fictionist and chair of the British Crime Writers’ Association. Here’s a plot synopsis: After Q (aka Major Boothroyd) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6’s OO agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His ..read more

(Editor’s note: This is the 185th installment in The Rap Sheet’s continuing series about great but forgotten books.) By Peter Handel The Hit is a hard-boiled novel released in 2003 and written by Jere Hoar, a prominent figure in the Mississippi literary and academic world, whose only other published work was a 1997 short-story collection titled Body Parts. If you have seen some of the classic films noirs of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, or read much noirish fiction, you know the tropes: 1. Protagonist: Male, maybe a psychologically scarred veteran, or an alienated, bitter loner. 2. Protagonist ..read more

In a fine essay for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michael Rubenstein, an associate professor of English at Stony Brook University and author of the forthcoming book, “Chinatown” at 50 or, Seeing Oil Through Cinema, chews over that 1974 private-eye film’s legacy, its newly shaky place in cinematic history, and efforts to restore it to public prominence. The article begins: Released on June 20, 1974, Chinatown has been part of the cultural record for 50 years. In 1991, it was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry. In 2010, when Chinatown was 36 years old—the same age ..read more

(Above) New York in the 1920s—Arthur Barry’s burgling heyday. Sometimes it seems as if I spent my entire boyhood watching It Takes a Thief. Although my parents deemed me far too young to see that 1968-1970 ABC-TV series when it aired originally, I caught up with the show years later in weekend reruns. It starred Robert Wagner (previously cast in movies such as The Pink Panther and Harper) as Alexander Mundy, an oh-so-suave cat burglar, pickpocket, and master of disguise, who—in exchange for his release from prison—went to work for America’s fictional SIA (Secret Intelligence Agency), employing ..read more