THE ORIGIN OF FECES by James Lincoln Warren In the current climate of pervasive argument — endemic, I know, in an election year — it is appropriate to examine some of the schools of critical thought that are shaping the future. I am fortunate in being married to a critical theorist, M. P. Warren, who […]

CRIMINAL BRIEF IN REVIEW by James Lincoln Warren New Year’s Eve is always a time for reflection. Criminal Brief was launched on May 7, 2007. We’ve been going strong now for eight months. I frankly have no idea how successful we’ve been in our avowed purpose of advocating short crime fiction, but I can state […]

MY FATHER’S VOICE by James Lincoln Warren It is Christmas Eve. I don’t think there is a day on the calendar more redolent of family for me than this one. I do not describe myself as a Christian, mind, because I can not believe in the historical truth of the miraculous, but this is not […]

Some time ago, I was interviewed by the inimitable Elaine Flinn for her erstwhile column on Murderati, “On the Bubble”. In the interest of posterity, and also because I couldn’t think of anything I really wanted to pontificate about this week (as hard as that may be to believe), I reproduce that interview here, together […]

The diabolical ingenuity of spammers has recently enabled several illicit posts to slip by Criminal Brief‘s spam detection software. Effective immediately, only registered members of the site will be allowed to post responses to articles. Registration is a relatively painless procedure, and you have our word that the only use to which your registration information […]

A LOST ART by James Lincoln Warren “Brevity,” counseled Polonius, surely one of the biggest windbags in all of literature, “is the soul of wit.” Leaving aside the fact that Shakespeare obviously intended this particular passage to drip with irony (“large gobbets of irony that splash around your feet,” observed my wife Margaret), Polonius had […]

CORPUS DELICTI by James Lincoln Warren A few years ago I attended Malice Domestic, the fan convention dedicated to traditional detective fiction held every year in Arlington, VA. Linda Landrigan had arranged to have me seated at Alfred Hitchcock‘s table at the awards banquet. The other guests were wonderful: I had the pleasure of being […]