I love the combination of cinema and literature. I studied English Literature and was a screenwriter before writing my first novel, The Silent Patient—a psychological thriller about a woman who shoots her husband five times and then never speaks again. I’ve been reading mystery writers like Agatha Christie since my childhood and I’ve always been…
A country house, a dead body, a pack of suspects—sounds like Agatha Christie, no? Of course, it does. It’s said that Dame Agatha named 1958’s Ordeal by Innocence as one of her two favorite novels (Crooked House being the other), though she was known to change her answer to that particular question, as would any…
Since today is Halloween, let’s give a spooky classic the GIFnotes treatment—take a visual tour of Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party! At a Halloween party… Joyce—a hostile thirteen-year-old—boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her… She storms off home. But within hours, her body is found, still in the house, drowned in…
I do love a book with a house in it. When I write one, I draw a floor plan with cupboards, light switches and door hinges marked. When I read one, well, I draw a floor plan with cupboards, light switches . . . and I’m not alone. A quick search online yields the Waltons’…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, Hank Phillippi Ryan’s first standalone novel combines with Sophie Hannah’s third mystery in Agatha Christie’s legendary Hercule Poirot series…
The Mystery of Three Quarters by Sophie Hannah is an authorized installment of Dame Agatha Christie’s legendary Hercule Poirot series, where the world’s most beloved detective must solve a diabolically clever mystery set in the London of 1930. For one reason or another, I’ve had to put off reading Sophie Hannah’s authorized continuation of Dame Agatha Christie’s…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, Phillip Margolin's first in a new legal thriller series highlights an incredible week of books! See what else we're reading:
Malice Domestic—an annual convention held in Washington, D.C., honoring the best of the traditional/cozy mystery genre—has announced the nominees for 2018's Agatha Awards. Loosely defined as “mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore or violence,” the Agatha Award salutes the books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. This year, the annual…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, a highly anticipated debut from A. J. Finn and the 21st Dave Robicheaux novel from James Lee Burke help…
In addition to directing the new version of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, Kenneth Branagh expertly narrates a new audiobook recording of this classic Poirot mystery. Before you read any further, I have a confession to make. While I like to think of myself as being fairly well-read, and Agatha Christie’s Murder on…
