crime novels

9 Stories

After Murdering Friend's Mom at 15, She Became a Crime Novelist

Anne Perry dead at 84

(Newser) - When she was 15, Juliet Hulme helped her best friend murder the other girl's mother. By the time she died at age 84 on Monday, she was Anne Perry, award-winning and best-selling author of dozens of crime novels. The New York Times traces her troubled and fascinating life: Born...

Critics Slam Men Who Won $1.2M Literary Prize: 'Scammers'

'Carmen Mola,' believed to have been a woman, is actually trio of middle-aged Spanish screenwriters

(Newser) - The Beast, a gruesome historical thriller about a serial killer in the 1830s, has won one of Spain's top literary prizes, and its author, Carmen Mola—a popular writer known for the "strong female protagonists" in her crime novels, per the Washington Post —was supposed to show...

Report: Black Man Secretly Helped Great Crime Writers

Gumshoe Samuel Marlowe apparently wrote to Chandler, Hammett

(Newser) - Two great American crime novelists may have relied on a man unknown to history—a black detective in Los Angeles—to help them get their facts straight, the LA Times reports. Samuel Marlowe, said to be the city's first black gumshoe, worked for celebrities, studios, and speakeasies in the...

Meet the US Senate's Crime Novelist

Barbara Mikulski's heroine is a crime-fighting senator

(Newser) - If the American electorate ever actually throws the bastards behind the shutdown out, at least one career legislator has a plan B in place. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the Maryland Democrat who's the Senate's longest-serving woman, is also the published author of a pair of novels, notes Roll Call...

Jo Nesbo: Is He the 'Next Stieg Larsson' for the Publishing World?
 The Next Stieg Larsson?
May 7, 2011 1:41 PM CDT

The Next Stieg Larsson?

Maybe, but Norway's Jo Nesbo actually came first

(Newser) - Get ready to hear three names a lot: Jo Nesbo, Harry Hole, and Stieg Larsson. Nesbo is a Norwegian crime novelist ridiculously popular in his homeland, Hole is his alcoholic detective protagonist, and Larsson, of course, is the late Scandinavian author whose Dragon Tattoo trilogy has the publishing world salivating...

Dragon Tattoo Cover a Good Story, Too

After dozens of attempts, artist arrived at distinctive design

(Newser) - It's everywhere you look—at the beach, on the subway, in the waiting room. Americans are devouring The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and the bestselling novel's distinctive cover has a pretty good story of its own, reports the Wall Street Journal . Designer Peter Mendelsund went through dozens of possibilities,...

Spenser Novelist Robert B. Parker Dead

He helped bring back the genre of hard-boiled detective fiction

(Newser) - Robert B. Parker, the blunt and beloved crime novelist who helped revive the hard-boiled genre through his Spenser series, died yesterday of natural causes at 77. Prolific to the end, Parker wrote more than 50 novels, including 37 featuring Boston private eye Spenser. The character's first name was a mystery...

Writer Dominick Dunne Dead at 83
 Writer Dominick 
 Dunne Dead at 83 
OBITUARY
Aug 26, 2009 7:08 PM CDT

Writer Dominick Dunne Dead at 83

(Newser) - Dominick Dunne, the best-selling author who covered some of the past two decades’ highest-profile trials for Vanity Fair, died today at 83; his son, actor Griffin Dunne, told the magazine bladder cancer was the cause. Dominick Dunne served in World War II and produced TV shows and feature films before...

Salon 's Favorite Thrillers
 Salon's Favorite Thrillers 
May 26, 2008 6:09 PM CDT

Salon's Favorite Thrillers

5 gripping novels for those long summer days

(Newser) - Memorial Day means beaches, languid hours, and a page-turner within reach—so Salon has collared the season's best thrillers. This year's lineup includes: An art forger who gets in too deep; a Stalinist official who tries to do good; and a college prof who needs help solving an imaginary murder....

9 Stories
Most Read on Newser