GETTING SPOOKED by Rob Lopresti Happy Halloween. I hope you get visited by lots of charmingly costumed kids who eat the candy so you don’t have to. The haunted connection The fact that my column was falling on this holiday made me think about the link between ghost stories and mysteries. I mean, I don’t […]

THE INSPIRATION OF SPAM by Melodie Johnson Howe Coffee in hand I stagger into my office to begin writing. I crank up the computer and wait for it to go through its machinations. My icons appear on the screen. I tell myself not open my emails. Don’t do it, Melodie, you’ll get bogged down. Start […]

GHOST STORY by James Lincoln Warren ’Tis the season when an American writer’s fancy turns to ghoulies, ghosties, and things that go bump in the night. The peculiarly American fright fest called Halloween is just around the corner. (No comments about el Día de los Muertos, please, which is also of North American origin, but […]

MURDER MYSTERY NEWS by Leigh Lundin Following are a couple of news items that caught my attention, relating to mystery, murder, mayhem, and heroism. 23 October 2007 – The Heroes The heroes are Qemal Agaj of Albania and Fred Hunt of Berwick, Maine, who were swimming off Cocoa Beach, Florida. They saw a 68 year […]

ED MCBAIN’S NOVELLA SERIES by Angela Zeman 1 Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain, was a bestselling MWA Grandmaster and author of a massive body of work that included the famous 87th Precinct series and the striking, somewhat autobiographical novel, Blackboard Jungle. A few years ago Evan put together a collection of new novellas by ten […]

BANDERSNATCHES by Steve Steinbock I feel downright beamish1 in the company I keep here at Criminal Brief. This past week my partners in this blog-project wrote such interesting and engaging stuff that if I were to comment on everything I want, I’d have no time to write this week’s Bandersnatch. Golden Lies In Rob Lopresti’s […]

A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT by Deborah Elliott-Upton “Every time I agree with myself, I write an essay. When I disagree with myself, I know I’m pregnant with a short story.” — Amos Oz I’m a little bit pregnant today. My husband isn’t surprised and neither am I, but we don’t have to worry about bassinets […]