Getting Away with Murder By Mindy Carlson If you have a sibling, you likely know all too well the struggle of pushing back murderous impulses in the midst of a heated argument.…
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Do Me a Favor By K.L. Romo Have you ever felt so indebted to someone that you’re compelled to return the favor? What if the favor makes no sense or is dangerous?…
Protecting the World’s Most Famous Woman By Millie Naylor Hast London, 1988. Scotland Yard suspects corruption in the Royalty Protection Command, which safeguards the British Royal Family and assigns Detective Chief Inspector…
A Tale of Two Protagonists By Michael Sears Andrew Brown is an unusual South African crime writer. An anti-apartheid activist, he was given a three-year jail sentence in 1988 for his activities…
Two Parker Thrills for the Price of One By Allison McKnight For those Charlie Parker fans perusing the pages of this month’s edition of The Big Thrill, we have an additional big…
Time-Loops and Cosmic Do-Overs By K.L. Romo How do you prevent a murder after it’s already happened? That’s the question in bestselling author Gillian McAllister’s newest thriller WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME, a…
Much More Than a Familiar Whodunnit By Charles Salzberg Haley Scrivenor’s debut adult novel, DIRT CREEK, doesn’t waste any time. By page two the body of Esther, a 12-year-old missing child, is…
The Dramatic Tension of Mothers and Daughters in a Small Town By Karen Hugg Unlike the characters in her new novel, THE COUPLE AT NUMBER 9, Claire Douglas has never lived in…
A Horror Movie Comes to Life By Guy Bergstrom When former soap star Adele shows up on the scene of a horror movie being filmed in the woods, far from civilization, she’s…
Cooking Up a New Mystery By Michael Sears THE MILK TART MURDERS is Sally Andrew’s fourth mystery featuring the delightful Tannie Maria. Set in Ladismith in the Klein Karoo (where Andrew herself…
True Crime as Entertainment By Allison McKnight People are murdered every day. These deaths are often background chatter in our lives, always present, though rarely acknowledged. Until something interesting happens. Kate Miller…
Identity, Family, and How Childhood Shapes Us By Allison McKnight Molly Raven is half a person. Her other half, her identical twin KT, is everything Molly isn’t. KT is fun, carefree, fearless,…
Nicol Hammers Home a New Hit By Michael Sears HAMMERMAN is the latest blockbuster from one of South Africa’s most talented thriller writers. Mike Nicol is a novelist and stylist, and every…
Careful What You Wish For By R.G. Belsky Bestselling author James Swallow has spent a lot of time waiting around airports. So much so, he decided to use this as inspiration for…
The Fascination of Dark Tourism By Dawn Ius Vanessa Savage used to write books with an expected Happily-Ever-After—but her fascination with the darker side of humanity led her to write crime fiction.…
A Well-Crafted Blend of Suspense, Culture, and Humor By Michael Sears If you’re already a fan of Deon Meyer’s Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido thrillers, you’ll be excited to learn that the…
A Story Begging to Be Written By Esme Addison In THE DIAMOND EYE, New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn brings us a haunting World War II story about a quiet librarian…
An Old-Fashioned Detective Story—With a Twist By Michael Sears Bryony Rheam is a Zimbabwean who lives in Bulawayo. Her debut novel This September Sun was named Best First Book in the Zimbabwe…
A Thriller with Parallels to Our Current Reality By Michael Sears Lauren Beukes shot to prominence in 2013 with her debut The Shining Girls. Before that, she was a feature journalist and…
An Eye-Opening Collection Set in Nairobi By Michael Sears In their City Noir series, Akashic Books has been bringing out some eye-opening collections from Africa. The first sub-Saharan volume was Lagos Noir,…
A Gripping Fusion of Police Procedural and Thriller By Michael Sears Nechama Brodie has worked as a journalist, editor, and publisher for nearly 25 years. During this time she’s dodged the secret…
Not Your Average Serial Killer Book By Michael Sears Johan Jack Smith’s new novel, ZOLA, starts off as a classic serial killer police procedural: the horrendous murder of a young woman, followed…
A Unique Take on the Serial Killer Formula By Michael Sears Oyinkan Braithwaite’s debut, MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER, is an extraordinary novel. The premise is that two sisters are so close…
Lagos Featured in New City Noir Collection By Michael Sears On a recent trip to Botswana I picked up a copy of LAGOS NOIR, an anthology edited by well-known Nigerian author Chris…