#literary-mystery

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UK news
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 hour ago

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe review a compulsive tale of money, lies and avoidable tragedy

A young man named Zac Brettler died after falling from a balcony, raising questions about the circumstances surrounding his death.
#true-crime
Books
fromKqed
13 hours ago

'London Falling': A Teen Imposter, an Aging Gangster, a Body in the River

Brettler lived a double life, deceiving Sharma about his wealth, leading to fatal consequences for both in London's aspirational culture.
Books
fromKqed
13 hours ago

'London Falling': A Teen Imposter, an Aging Gangster, a Body in the River

Brettler lived a double life, deceiving Sharma about his wealth, leading to fatal consequences for both in London's aspirational culture.
Film
fromVulture
3 days ago

The Twist in The Drama Is Not the Problem

The film features a controversial plot twist involving a character's past plan for a school shooting, sparking significant online speculation and backlash.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
6 days ago

'The Keeper' is a grand finale to Tana French's Cal Hooper crime series

The Keeper concludes the Cal Hooper series, emphasizing environmental themes and the darkness lurking beneath the surface of rural life in Ireland.
#literature
fromThe Atlantic
3 days ago
Books

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
3 days ago

Unconventional Novels About Conventional People

Aging revolutionaries and conformists share parallel narratives of disillusionment and the loss of youthful dreams in recent literature.
Writing
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh review high-concept adultery fable

Sophie Mackintosh's novel Permanence explores desire and infidelity through a surreal narrative of a couple trapped in a fantasy world.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
6 days ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
fromHyperallergic
1 week ago

Anki King's Nordic Noir

Anki King's work suggests an intimate engagement with New Image painting, particularly the later work of Susan Rothenberg, but she took it in a direction that is recognizably hers.
Arts
Television
fromBustle
2 weeks ago

Kerry Washington's New Thriller May Have A Shocking Twist

Apple TV's Imperfect Women follows three women navigating an affair and murder, exemplifying the 'good for her' genre where morally gray female characters make questionable choices in response to difficult circumstances.
Psychology
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Readers reply: which are more like life, novels or films?

Films and novels employ fundamentally different narrative techniques to convey character psychology, with neither medium inherently more realistic than the other due to their diverse stylistic approaches.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 week ago

Benjamin Wood: John Fowles's The Magus was so frustrating I threw it at the wall'

My mother bought me Stanley Bagshaw and the Short-sighted Football Trainer by Bob Wilson. I grew up thinking he was the same Bob Wilson who played in goal for Arsenal and presented sport on ITV.
Books
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

Raymond Chandler and the Case of the Split Infinitive

Raymond Chandler clashed with The Atlantic's copy editor Margaret Mutch over her correction of a split infinitive, arguing that deliberate rule-breaking in language creates authentic, living prose.
Television
fromSlate Magazine
3 weeks ago

Nicole Kidman's New Crime Show Is Surprisingly Captivating-and Goes Unexpected Places

Nicole Kidman stars as Kay Scarpetta in Amazon Prime's new series adaptation, blending family drama with forensic investigation as Kay confronts a murder matching a serial killer she caught 25 years ago.
Books
fromAnOther
1 week ago

Polly Barton's Debut Novel Is an All-Consuming Exploration of Obsession

The protagonist navigates intense limerence while exploring self-actualization and cultural themes in Polly Barton's debut novel.
Film
fromInsideHook
4 weeks ago

The Sensational 19th-Century Adaptation That's Not "Wuthering Heights"

The Count of Monte Cristo PBS adaptation is an exceptional book-to-screen adaptation featuring an Oscar-winning director and acclaimed actors bringing Alexandre Dumas's 1840s classic to thrilling life.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
3 weeks ago

'Scarpetta' is a captivating murder mystery and a high-wire balancing act

Scarpetta alternates between two timelines with different actresses portraying Kay Scarpetta, supported by strong ensemble performances from established television actors.
Books
fromSlate Magazine
1 week ago

Netflix's New Crime Thriller Is So Deep in Sicko Territory It's Almost Funny

Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's adaptation of his Harry Hole novels struggles to translate complex narratives into a coherent screen format.
Books
fromInverse
1 week ago

Behind 'Project Hail Mary' And The Hard Sci-Fi Renaissance - And What's Next

Andy Weir's evolution as a sci-fi author reflects a blend of realism and personal growth in his characters and storytelling.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Killing Me Softly and Whidbey explore complex themes of trauma, morality, and systemic failures in healthcare and society.
Film
fromIndieWire
1 month ago

'Young Sherlock' Stars Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Joseph Fiennes Crack the Case on Big Spoilers and Real Chemistry

Hero Fiennes Tiffin stars in Prime Video's "Young Sherlock" opposite his uncle Joseph Fiennes, marking their first significant on-camera collaboration in a major project.
Music
fromwww.npr.org
1 month ago

Why music has become such a big part of the romance novel reading experience

Romance novel readers increasingly use pop music playlists to enhance their reading experiences, creating a community that bridges book fandom and music fandom, exemplified by Charli XCX's Wuthering Heights album.
Books
fromwww.npr.org
3 weeks ago

Author Luke Kennard talks about his novel, 'Black Bag'

Luke Kennard's novel 'Black Bag' fictionalizes a 1967 psychology experiment where a silent, bagged actor in a classroom gradually becomes liked by students through repeated exposure, exploring how familiarity transforms perception.
Writing
fromPsychology Today
1 month ago

Virginia Woolf and the Reclaiming of Attention

Virginia Woolf's stream-of-consciousness technique demonstrates how attention shapes consciousness and remains relevant to contemporary struggles against digital distraction.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

Patricia Cornwell on Crime and Creativity

Fear is the primary obstacle to creativity; overcoming it and persisting through rejection enables successful creative work.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Obnoxious jewellery dealer Rodney Manderson has been killed outside the Bowery auction rooms, stabbed through the eye with the Victorian hatpin that his boss, Rose Bowery, has brandished in front of the nation on Bargain Hunt. As she discussed the pin's virtues as a deadly weapon as well as its millinerial uses, the fiercely loyal Rilke decides while feeling grateful to have skipped lunch and trying not to think of jelly to remove it before calling the police.
LGBT
fromVulture
2 months ago

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Finale Recap: In Which Points Are Made

Everything Bundle has accomplished is substantive and worthy of celebration, but in the course of learning who she can trust and foiling the theft of Dr. Matip's formula, she's lost Jimmy and Loraine, who represented her one remaining connection to Gerry. She's also been forced to reckon with the knowledge that although Lady Caterham loves her, she's never really seen Bundle and her gifts accurately. Worse still, Bundle realizes that she's never really been enough for her mother.
UK politics
Video games
fromGameSpot
2 months ago

Here Are The Best Detective Games To Check Out

Industry layoffs and studio closures coincide with major game updates, gameplay impressions, character trailers, and recommendations including Steam Detective Fest deals and free PC games.
#black-dahlia
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

Pushing the Limits of Historical Fiction

Enrigue's 'penchant for shooting the facts of history through the prism of the absurd' makes him singular-but it also puts him firmly in a long literary tradition. The book 'distills a byzantine swirl of historical events through the lives of a handful of very colorful characters,' intertwining several real and invented incidents with major moments in the Apache Wars, a series of skirmishes involving Native Americans, the U.S., and Mexico across the Southwest borderlands.
Books
fromInverse
2 months ago

The Dream Of Life Without Sleep Is Actually A Dystopian Nightmare

We spend one-third of our lives asleep. This biological fact is something that, with time and technology, is less and less taken for granted. In many science fiction stories, the future of sleep is cozy and idyllic - an elevated state living within dream world. In others, sleep is more of an evolutionary shackle that gets in the way of productivity. The latter focuses on questions that haunt anyone who feels there are not enough hours in the day. What if we didn't have to sleep?
Philosophy
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

From luxury dupes' to literary doubles: why doppelgangers are everywhere right now

The doppelganger figure permeates contemporary culture across literature, fashion, and film, reflecting widespread paranoia about identity and authenticity in modern society.
Television
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

I'm a crime writer. Here's why we make the best Traitors contestants

Crime fiction specialists' observational, empathetic, and deceptive-character skills make them natural contestants and formidable analysts on The Traitors.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Saba Sams: I've no interest in reading Wuthering Heights again'

Jacqueline Wilson's unflinching approach to children's literature, alongside works by authors like Gwendoline Riley and Clarice Lispector, demonstrates that literary courage and emotional complexity resonate more powerfully than conventional safety or virtuousness.
Video games
fromThe Verge
2 months ago

Detective games get extra cryptic with TR-49's code-breaking mystery

TR-49 is a detective game by Inkle that uses a bizarre WWII-era code-breaking computer and an amnesiac protagonist to drive investigation in a dystopian setting.
Podcast
fromThe Mercury News
2 months ago

Michael Connelly says same killer committed Black Dahlia, Zodiac murders

A citizen sleuth using AI cracked a Zodiac cipher linking Marvin Margolis to both the Black Dahlia and Zodiac murders.
Film
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"Dead Man's Wire" Is a Tangle of Loose Threads

A DJ's improvised on-air intervention and a TV reporter's determination highlight media influence and legal, law-enforcement complexities, though broader ambitions remain underdeveloped.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

They by Helle Helle review a novel to make the reader slow down and take notice

A Danish novel explores the deepening bond between a teenage daughter and terminally ill mother through minimalist prose that captures unspoken emotional intimacy and life's quiet, defining moments.
Arts
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

'Islands' is a spare and satisfying slow-burn thriller

Islands is a spare, slow-burn drama set on barren Fuerteventura that examines alienation and luxury through a broken tennis pro's interactions with a wealthy family.
Film
fromVulture
2 months ago

Mark Strong Answers Every Question We Have About Sherlock Holmes

British actors often play Hollywood villains; Mark Strong's Lord Blackwood in Guy Ritchie's 2009 Sherlock Holmes exemplified that trend and boosted his profile.
#agatha-christie
fromRoger Ebert
2 months ago
Television

"Agatha Christie's Seven Dials" Will Send Your Snooze Button Into Overdrive | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert

fromRoger Ebert
2 months ago
Television

"Agatha Christie's Seven Dials" Will Send Your Snooze Button Into Overdrive | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert

Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Ben Markovits: I used to think any book concerned with people falling in love can't be very good'

Reading shaped formative years through detective stories, fantasy epics, and memoirs that provided companionship and escape during frequent moves and family transitions.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

My Sister's Bones review drab adaptation doesn't deliver the dark punch of the bestselling novel

A drab psychological-thriller film fails to generate intrigue despite a strong cast, weak pacing, and an underpowered twist ending.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
1 month ago

When Did Literature Get Less Dirty?

Philip Roth's Zuckerman Unbound functioned as a response to the controversial reception of Portnoy's Complaint, with Roth's protagonist expressing regret over writing sexually explicit material that drew accusations of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
fromJezebel
1 month ago

Turns Out, When You Write a Novel About Killing a Politician, People Tell You How They'd Do It

When the people who are after me get here, they'll arrest me and put me on trial, or they'll disappear me to some black site. Or they won't bother with any of that and they'll just kill me. All of these seem like plausible outcomes, but in the novel's prologue, the narrator seems much more confident of her success: I am a fucking genius, a gorgeous fucking genius, and the only thing left to do is sit down and write.
Books
Television
fromBustle
2 months ago

'Vanished' Starts Sweet, Then Drops You Into A Twist-Heavy Mystery You'll Devour

A woman’s romantic trip turns into a dangerous, twisty thriller as she pursues her mysteriously disappeared boyfriend across Europe, becoming a competent, action-ready heroine.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Two contemporary novels probe suburban domesticity, revealing secrets, manipulation, and moral ambiguity through slow-burn suspense and darkly comic plotting.
Television
fromCN Traveller
2 months ago

Where was Agatha Christie's Seven Dials filmed? Behind the scenes of the lavish Netflix murder mystery

Filming took place at Badminton House and across Bristol, including Barrel House and streets such as Queens Square, All Saints Street and Clare Street.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Watson season two review a Sherlock Holmes spinoff full of naughty wit

Long before that, the biggest drama in the world was House, which was set in a hospital but featured a mercurial genius solving baffling mysteries once the House-Home-Holmes penny dropped, you knew you were watching Sherlock in disguise. Watson is the latest attempt by US network television to keep the Conan Doyle canon firing, and it's a straight cross between House and Elementary.
Television
Television
fromwww.esquire.com
2 months ago

'Landman' Season 2, Episode 9 Twist Ending, Explained

Billy Bob Thornton's character Tommy Norris remains central to Landman despite being fired, and Thornton says he'll star as long as the show wants him.
Television
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

What a Reality-TV Novel Understands About Reality

Treating life as a narrative and manipulating that narrative can lead people to sacrifice their humanity for drama.
Books
fromEngadget
1 month ago

What to read this weekend: The unsettling new horror novel, Persona

A trans woman uncovers non-consensual pornography of herself and is drawn into escalating horrors involving identity, exploitation, internet influence, and economic precarity.
Books
fromVulture
2 months ago

Agatha Christie's Seven Dials Recap: Battle Commences

Jimmy and Bundle investigate linked deaths of Gerry and Ronnie, uncovering connections to "Seven Dials" while Bundle's bold detective actions drive the plot forward.
Books
fromOregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
2 months ago

PuzzleWatch: What the Dickens * Oregon ArtsWatch

Charles Dickens achieved lasting literary celebrity through prolific serialized novels, vivid characters, public lectures, and enduring popularity that keeps his works continuously in print.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Good People by Patmeena Sabit review addictive mystery caters to modern attention spans

A novel uses short testimonies to unravel a teenager's death while exposing immigrant family dynamics, communal gossip, wealth-driven envy, and cultural tensions.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry review a dazzling puzzle-box of a debut

We are initiated into a world in which historically accurate foodstuffs can be ordered online a half oyster shell, the exposed flesh shining as if with the freshest brine, is 31.25 for a single piece and begin to understand one of the most striking things about this novel: its insistence upon detail, its utter specificity, set against a deliberate lack of specificity regarding the larger details that the reader's mind naturally itches to fill in.
Books
Books
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

'Even the Dead' wraps up John Banville's smart, moody mystery series

Quirke mysteries combine noir darkness with literary prose, following a Dublin coroner confronting trauma, moral ambiguity, and hidden crimes in 1950s settings.
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

"This Is How It Happens," by Molly Aitken

You are leaving work, your suit still damp from the morning's downpour, the skin on your palms peeling. You are clutching two supermarket bags, tins of cream soup and tuna knocking against one another. The rain is hard and your anorak is cheap. You are on your way to Stockbridge, to your parents' house, which only your father inhabits now that your mother is gone.
Books
fromThe Atlantic
2 months ago

A Biography Without 'The Boring Bits'

Sophia Stewart poses a choice that many biographers struggle with: "what to do with the boring bits."
Books
#science-fiction
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror review roundup

Subsequently, runaway children turned the valley into a fortress, surviving on food they could catch or grow, with occasional forays into the towns below. Riley has heard the rumours, but it is only when she sees a green-clad boy or is it a girl? hovering outside her bedroom window offering directions on how to find Nowhere that she realises this might be her chance to escape and save her little brother from their sadistic guardian.
Books
Books
fromHarvard Gazette
2 months ago

The stories behind the books - Harvard Gazette

Harvard's library collection includes books that use layered images, movable elements, and raised type to create interactive, tactile, and accessible reading experiences.
Books
fromBig Think
2 months ago

5 literary conspiracy theories - debunked

Literary conspiracy theories question authorship, use pseudonyms, and misattribute works, sometimes entertaining but often distorting historical understanding.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Tessa Hadley on the Power of Memory

A lasting friendship rests on shared sensibility, mutual trust to perceive and understand, and an affinity of insight beyond mere shared experiences.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Susan Choi: For so long I associated Dickens with unbearable Christmas TV specials'

The book that changed me as a teenager Donald Barthelme's Sixty Stories, because he was having such a good time and seemed so so smart, but was also mischievous and irreverent. It may sound corny but these stories made me grasp the existence of a world of art and literature. And Barthelme lived in Houston, where I was growing up, yet he was a major world writer.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

More heartache than Hamnet?: Maggie O'Farrell's best books ranked!

The ghost of a previous lover is always a challenge, particularly if you (mistakenly) believe that she's actually dead. This is the unenviable situation for Lily, the protagonist of O'Farrell's second novel, who is swept off her feet by dashing architect Marcus and in short order moves in with him. Lily takes his assurances that her predecessor Sinead is no longer with us to mark a more permanent absence;
Books
Books
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

How Do You Write About the Inexplicable?

Rational skepticism coexists with a persistent tendency to personify evil and read coincidences as omens.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Vigil by George Saunders review will a world-wrecking oil tycoon repent?

A spectral death doula confronts an unrepentant, fossil-fuel–profiting oil tycoon in a liminal afterlife, forcing moral reckoning over climate-denial harms.
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