POLICE STORY by John M. Floyd Now and then I re-watch—or discover, if I’m fortunate—a movie that is both entertaining to me as a crime-fiction fan and instructive to me as a crime-fiction writer. I’ve done columns on a few of them over the past year or so. One was Double Indemnity, another was Blood […]

AN UNFORTUNATE CHOICE OF WORDS by John M. Floyd At our church a few weeks ago—and I’m not kidding, here—I was reading the printed bulletin during the first hymn, and I noticed this, written on page two: “It’s a glorious day—Stand up and sin!” I consider myself fairly open-minded, but a church bulletin seemed to […]

BOOKLIST by John M. Floyd A mystery-writer friend asked me a tough question last week. It wasn’t about style or marketing or any of the other things this lady and I usually discuss; this was about my preferences as a reader. She asked me if I could name my all-time favorite novels. (Why doesn’t anybody […]

PERCEPTION IS EVERYTHING by John M. Floyd Two sanitation engineers being conveyedon their environment service vehicle. We at Criminal Brief often find ourselves writing about word usage and wordplay. A few of us (excluding me but including JLW) are experts on the subject. And the one thing we all seem to agree on is that […]

KID STUFF by John M. Floyd I’ve always been impressed by the way some authors can write successfully in different genres: Nora Roberts, James Rollins, Margaret Atwood, Larry McMurtry, Joyce Carol Oates, and many others. But what impresses me the most is when I find out that an author I already enjoy reading, like James […]

RADIO ACTIVITY: A TRUE STORY by John M. Floyd As my friends and family and some of our Criminal Brief readers know, I’m hopelessly addicted to movie and TV trivia — especially mysteries and westerns. In fact, my CB co-columnists are probably the ones who razz me the most about it. Over the years my […]

PAGES of STORIES, Part I Weekend Giveaway by John M. Floyd with Leigh Lundin Last May, James wrote an article about a new short story publication called Pages of Stories. Yesterday they achieved their first anniversary, which is good news for any startup, but especially in this tight economy. This publication will interest readers for […]