KINKY MUSINGS by Steve Steinbock As regular visitors to Criminal Brief probably already know, I’m the only regular CB columnist who hasn’t published short mystery fiction. That’s a personal detail that may change at some point in the future, and regular visitors to Criminal Brief will be amongst the first I’ll tell if it does […]

PACKAGING MURDER by Deborah Elliott-Upton A few of my friends know I’m the one they can count on to help them hide the body. Maybe not literally – or wait! Maybe literately is the only way I could. Still, anyone who thinks about the subject would realize murders are usually messy. Ask any writer and […]

WITH A TWIST by Rob Lopresti John Floyd’s column about favorite books and stories got me thinking about my own choices. (More on that in a future entry.) I quickly realized that a lot of my favorite stories had twist endings. And that got me thinking some more…. The element of surprise Let’s define our […]

NEW FRIENDS & TRAVEL by Melodie Johnson Howe I took some much needed vacation time after Bouchercon and have just returned home. So I am late writing about my experience. NEW FRIENDS. It was great to meet my fellow bloggers for the first time. I think what was most interesting was that we are what […]

JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH? by James Lincoln Warren 1 As promised, here is the recording of Criminal Brief‘s panel, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” — the title was a mystery to us all, although someone opined that maybe it was a reference to “flash” fiction, which wasn’t even discussed — at Bouchercon 2008 in Baltimore. It’s almost an […]

ON the RAILS by Leigh Lundin Not knowing if I’d have an article when I arrived at Bouchercon, I wrote the following article on the train. I have a love-hate thing about trains. I write this on my way to Bouchercon, the conference for mystery readers and writers. I considered planes, trains, and automobiles, but […]

CONFERENCE NOTES by John M. Floyd It’s now been almost a full week1 since I got home from Bouchercon, and even though several of my Criminal Brief colleagues have filled you in on the festivities there, I wanted to give you at least a few of my thoughts on the event. Unlike some of my […]