LITERARY CATS by James Lincoln Warren I think that Rita Mae Brown and Lilian Jackson Braun, to name just two, have a lot to answer for. I am not constitutionally disposed against cosies like Otto Penzler, but I draw the line at violating feline literary dignity. A couple months ago, we lost our cat Molly. […]

SPELLING DNA by James Lincoln Warren I graduated from high school a year early — not because I was exceptionally brilliant (which movingly modest confession I don’t doubt will bring a tear to the eye of the Gentle Reader) — but because I loathed high school with a deep abiding loathing and went to summer […]

AWAY AVEC LE CLICHÉ by James Lincoln Warren This past Saturday, Paul Guyot directed me (and a lot of others, including Elaine Flinn, Gar Anthony Haywood, and Robert S. Levinson) to David Montgomery’s blog, Crime Fiction Dossier, where there was a lively exchange concerning clichés in P.I. fiction. Among David’s least favorites were the following: […]

REINVENTING THE INVESTIGATORS by James Lincoln Warren By now, regular visitors to Criminal Brief will certainly have learned that the current (April 2008) issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine contains stories by three Criminal Briefers, and that Robert Lopresti has the cover story, I have the lead story, and Leigh Lundin and I have both […]

LOADED MAGAZINE by James Lincoln Warren For Christmas, my wife got me Otto Penzler’s anthology The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, an epic collection of hard-boiled crime fiction from the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Highly recommended; it’s a wonderful collection and I have been enjoying every bit of it, even the abysmally bad writing […]

THE EDGAR NOMINATIONS by James Lincoln Warren The same week we lost a giant, Ed Hoch, Mystery Writers of America published the nominations for the 2008 Edgar Awards. Steve and Leigh have both written eloquently on Ed’s untimely demise, and I have nothing substantive to add to their tributes. But it is fitting that Ed […]

THE MYSTERY HOOK by James Lincoln Warren I write several kinds of crime stories. The first and most characteristic type is the traditional whodunit, so far always featuring independent 18th century insurance investigator Alan Treviscoe. These stories generally feature a lot of physical evidence requiring Treviscoe’s deductive prowess and a puzzle plot. They almost always […]