GUEST POST FOR THE STRAND FROM KARA THOMAS AUTHOR OF LOST TO DUNE ROAD, Thomas & Mercer   Crime fiction has come a long way in terms of how women characters are represented—gone are the days where women were either office secretaries or nagging wives to the male detectives. These days there is no shortage […] The post Top Ten Fictional Women Detectives and PIs appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

Leslie Karst, author of Molten Death   When A Fish Out of Water Meets an Active Lava Flow “Will we sip Mai Tais on white sand beaches under azure skies with puffs of trade wind clouds above? Will the strains of ukuleles and sweet falsetto voices float to us from a nearby tiki bar, brightly […] The post Writing a Cozy Set on the Big Island of Hawai‘i by Leslie Karst appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

A Reflection on My New Book, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? by Dervla McTiernan   My new book, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?, is out very soon, and I’m bracing myself, just a little, that some readers might think some parts of the story are a little far-fetched. If they do, I’m prepared with my rebuttal argument! […] The post A Reflection on My New Book, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? by Dervla McTiernan appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

The Dark Side of Fame, or how Kpop’s dreaded “Black Ocean” inspired the plot of The Band There’s a wild statistic out there that says upwards of a quarter of millennials would quit their job tomorrow in order to become famous. Once upon a time, being doctors and lawyers were considered the “dream jobs”; these […] The post The Dark Side of Fame, or How Kpop’s dreaded “Black Ocean” Inspired the Plot of The Band appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

Few things in life are as enjoyable as getting sucked into a great thriller. Those late nights spent in the dark glued to my e-reader provide the kind of twisty, adventurous fun that keeps my heart racing just enough. (My kind of thrill ends when I take off my glasses.) With a mix of well- […] The post My Top Ten Favorite Recent Thrillers appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

Bestselling author Tana French’s THE HUNTER is “an absorbing crime yarn” 1.Tell us about your upcoming novel, The Hunter. It’s a heat-wave summer in the little West of Ireland village of Ardnakelty. Cal Hooper, who took early retirement from the Chicago police force and moved there looking for peace, has found it: he’s built a […] The post THE HUNTER by Tana French: An Absorbing Crime Yarn appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

TOP 10 UNSOLVED MYSTERIES IN OUR NATIONAL PARKS By: A. J. Landau (author of LEAVE NO TRACE)     LEAVE NO TRACE is the first in a series of mystery-thrillers set within, and against the backdrop of, America’s iconic national parks. To commemorate the book’s February 27 publication, we thought it would be fun to […] The post Top 10 Unsolved Mysteries in our National Parks appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

Exclusive with Benjamin Stevenson Gulli:  Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone—what a title, what’s the book about? Stevenson: A family gets trapped in ski resort and finds a killer picking them of one by one. However, everyone in this has – at some point in their lives – killed someone already. How do you […] The post Exclusive with Benjamin Stevenson appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

The beautiful illusion of procrastination masquerading as the pursuit of artistic excellence. By M.M. Dewil ~ In a recent letter Nick Cave wrote ‘… art is the noble and necessary rejoinder to the sins of the world.’ I agree. And as such the artist hasn’t the luxury to wait for inspiration to strike. Rather, he […] The post The beautiful illusion of procrastination masquerading as the pursuit of artistic excellence appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more

How I Look at Art Navigating museums can be tricky. Blockbuster exhibitions have made what should be a quiet, intimate experience, too often crowded and difficult, chirping audio guides like crickets in the air, people jostling for a better view or worse, loudly critiquing the artwork to a friend.  Sometimes I think art has become […] The post How I Look at Art appeared first on Strand Mag ..read more