mystery and crime

  • Crime: 2013 Edgar Award nominees

    It’s that time of year, and the Mystery Writers of America have announced their nominees for the 2013 Edgar Awards. However you feel about awards – winners, losers, what all that means – if you read crime fiction, the following titles/series are all worthy of your notice. Continue reading

  • Crime: New books for the new year

    Well, here we are: the world didn’t end, the fiscal cliffhanger is past, and the Library has upped the number of reserves to fifty, so let’s fill up that holds list with some stellar new crime offerings from tried and true authors. Lawrence Block started writing crime fiction over 50 years ago, (and some of… Continue reading

  • Occasional Mysteries: Reading Retro

    I’ve recently been reading some classic historical mysteries. That’s classic not in the sense of “set in older times,” but as in foundations of the genre, written in the vernacular of older times. First published in 1903, The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers could in some ways be thought of as rather more… Continue reading

  • Black Friday Specials at the Library!

    As you’re heading for the stores or mall this Black Friday, don’t forget to stop by your local library for the best door-busting deals of all! All books, music and dvds are free free free. Where else can you find such deals on Black Sunday, Black Monday, Black Tuesday,     Black Thursday, and Black Friday (sorry – we’re… Continue reading

  • Crime, Seattle Style: A Reading List.

    Some of our favorite mysteries set in the rainy streets of Seattle. Third & Forever, by Lowen Clausen Grace Stevens investigates a series of rapes involving college athletes, including one dating the daughter of her former partner, in this final chapter of a gripping trilogy by a former Seattle police officer. Queer Street, by Curt Colbert.… Continue reading

  • SPL Discoveries: Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

    I’m a big fan of the Hardcase Crime imprint, which has been publishing a succession of luridly jacketed vintage pulp fiction alternated with contemporary noir ever since their premiere title – Grifter’s Game by Lawrence Block – in the sultry summer of 2004. I also love Stark House, a small press publishing a steady stream of vintage crime fiction by… Continue reading

  • Crime: Presidential Thrills

    As if this election season wasn’t thrilling enough, we’ve compiled a little list of Presidential Thrillers for your reading delight. Can fiction possibly be stranger than truth? Continue reading

  • Crime: Murder can be scary!

    Hallowe’en is the time for dipping into ghost and horror stories, but there is plenty of spooky crime fiction out there too. Continue reading

  • SPL Discoveries: Craig Holden.

    Okay, maybe we didn’t discover them, but here are writers, old and new, that we wish more readers knew about.  Librarians have been known to carry concealed weapons; Craig Holden’s 1999 crime novel Four Corners of Night is one of mine.  Continue reading

  • Crime: Macavity Macavity… Award-winning mysteries.

    Most crime readers are aware that there are mystery awards – the Edgars, right? – but not everyone knows just how many awards there are. There are the Agatha Awards for best domestic mystery; the Shamus Awards for detective novels; Britain’s Dagger Awards, and many, many more. And for a quarter of a century, the Mystery Readers International’s Macavity Awards (named… Continue reading

  • Alphabet of Crime: Keeping up with the Jameses.

    The book’s location is MYSTERY > JAMES. Quick – who’s the author? Chances are you guessed P.D. James, the doyenne of contemporary British crime fiction, who over the past fifty years has penned over a score of titles – most featuring buttoned-down Inspector-cum-Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh – that have consistently raised the bar on what is possible… Continue reading

  • Crime: Is Dorothy L. Sayers still worth reading?

    “Is Dorothy L. Sayers still worth reading?” Well I’ve been reading her lately (in anticipation of the Taproot Theatre’s upcoming production of Gaudy Night), and my unsurprising answer is yes, but why? After all, her hero – Edwardian aristocrat Lord Peter Wimsey – seems at first blush to be just the kind of plummy, pompous plutocrat that we’ve… Continue reading

  • Crime: Beneath the Antimacassars

    I like a dark, creepy Victorian crime novel — the real doozies – stories so strange and bizarre, nobody’s thought of them yet. The Thing about Thugs by Tabish Khair is a doozy. The Victorian mystery as we know it is turned on its head, so to speak, with a “normal” scientist, Captain William T.… Continue reading

  • September Sleuthing: Women Detectives to Die For

    Looking for another Stephanie Plum or Kay Scarpetta to slink into your life? Check out these lesser-known women detectives who reveal the darker underbellies of locales from coastal Florida to the Alaskan wilderness. Artifacts, by Mary Anna Evans (Faye Longchamp Mysteries) Aspiring archeologist Faye Longchamp resorts to “pot-hunting” to save her ancestral home, an island… Continue reading

  • Crime: Blood and Circuses.

    Recently I read a story as part of Thrilling Tales, Seattle Public Library’s storytime for grownups, that was a bit out there even for me: “Spurs,” by the obscure pulp writer Tod Robbins. (You can listen to it here – Fair warning: I had a cold, and I really chewed the scenery on this one). Published in 1923,… Continue reading

  • Murder at the Olympic Games

    I foolishly tried to resist getting caught up in the fervor, but it’s no use: once again my attention has been totally dominated by the Olympic Games. Such is the case for many of our patrons if the small talk at our service desk is any indication. There’s also been a run on all of our books about the Games,… Continue reading

  • Are You Tough Enough? Derek Raymond’s Dare.

    Among crime readers, there are certain qualities that serve as points on our criminal compass. For example, authors who put a scalpel to the subtle psychological underpinnings of crime contrast with those for whom swift action on every page is essential. Another scale lies between whodunnits with a humorous or “cozy” feel, and those on the darker, grittier… Continue reading

  • H is for Gar Anthony Haywood

    Talking with fans of detective fiction, you tend to hear the same authors come up a lot, so it is a real pleasure to introduce readers to great crime novelists who are less well known, such as Gar Anthony Haywood. Hawyood’a Fear of the Dark won a Shamus Award in 1989 for best first private eye novel, introducing… Continue reading