 | | MS goes digital! Coming soon the Mystery Scene app for the iPad and iPhone devices. The app will be available for download on the Apple Newsstand and will include rich media and engaging experiences for readers including bonus content, slideshows, videos, and more. Stay tuned! |
Ellis Peters once commented that human goodness interested her much more than wickedness and I have a feeling that Alexander McCall Smith would agree. His No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels acknowledge the darker realities of life, but they also celebrate friendship, love, and kindness in a way that has enchanted millions of readers worldwide. To judge by Oline Cogdill's profile in this issue, the author is just as charming as his novels.
Also in our Holiday Issue #132, Jon L. Breen offers a roundup of terrific legal mysteries and Joseph Goodrich profiles Peter Quinn, whose love of New York City's rapidly receding past is reflected in his Fintan Dunne PI novels.
Jake Hinkson considers the celebrated television series Breaking Bad and its roots in the Great Recession, gangster films such as Scarface, and the classic Western. Lynn Kaczmarek interviews Aim�e and David Thurlo whose Ella Clah Navajo series is set in their beloved state of New Mexico.
Your holiday shopping will be a snap with the handy "Gifts for Mystery Lovers" by Kevin Burton Smith. (And once again I ended up with lots of treats for myself.)
As 2013 draws to a close, there's no more pleasant way to take stock of the past year than to consider all the great books that have come through the door here at Mystery Scene. In the next issue, our expert critics and contributors will share with you their favorite reads of 2013. And please email us your own recommendations for a special edition of "Our Readers Recommend the Best of 2013."
Wishing all of you a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy 2014!
Best,
Kate Stine
Editor in chief
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 | | Christopher Fowler |
Writers on Reading:
Christopher Fowler on his childhood library
It was a small library with a good librarian, a woman of thrillingly diverse tastes. She scared me with a laser stare intended to weed out time-wasters.
"You'll need a reference from a friend," she said.
"I haven't got any friends," I replied.
She peered over half-moon glasses and pursed duck-lips at me. "Hm." Looking around the library, she pointed out a pair of old ladies perusing romantic novels. "Go over there and make a friend."
Christopher Fowler's latest Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery is The Invisible Code
(Bantam, December 2013)
"Writers on Reading" is a special ongoing Mystery Scene series available as a first-look exclusive to our newsletter subscribers.
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Books any true fan will treasure
A gift is a gift, but a book is a treasure. And this year sees books on or by three of the greatest mystery writers of all time; books that any true fan would treasure.
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Online Exclusive Review
The Murder Code
by Steve Mosby
Pegasus, December 2013, $25.95
When confronted with two murders committed in a similar manner (the victims heads have been bludgeoned so thoroughly as to be unidentifiable), Detective Inspector Andrew Hicks at first assumes coincidence. As new bodies appear, however, he is forced to conclude he is dealing with a serial killer. Then killer contacts him to hint that he is manipulating the authorities. As Hicks continues his investigation, he begins to suspect he has some connection with the killer-the truth, however, is far stranger than that.
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Overheard: Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit
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Chris Pine as Jack Ryan in the latest Hollywood take on
Tom Clancy's most famous character.
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Viktor Cherevin: "You Americans like to think of yourselves as direct. Perhaps you are just rude."
Jack Ryan: "Perhaps you're just touchy."
- Kenneth Branagh as Viktor Cherevin in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit delivers a zinger aimed at Jack Ryan (played by Chris Pine), the popular character created by Tom Clancy. Branagh also directs the thriller, the first Jack Ryan film not adapted from a Clancy novel, but rather written as an original screenplay. Opens nationwide in theaters Christmas Day 2013. Also stars Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, and Nonso Anozie.
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Douglas G. Greene on John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, and The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Megan Abbott on Gilda, a film she calls "noir to its rotten core"
If only he had lived longer, this private eye writer could have been one of the greats says Kevin Burton Smith
Did you know that MS features even more reviews online? Look for the tag "Online Exclusive."
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Established in 1985, Mystery Scene Magazine is the oldest, largest, and most authoritative guide to the crime fiction genre.
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