The Lost Coast and Other Sharon McCone Stories collects several stories of Marcia Muller's San Francisco private eye that shows the characters growth over the decades from working at The All Souls legal cooperative to going out on her own and finding a life partner. Marcia was find enough to discuss the collection and her character with us. SCOTT MONTGOMERY: Do you remember how Sharon McCone came to you as a character? MARCIA MULLER: Sharon McCone came to me as I was reading

Of a Different Stamp is R.F. Ryan's second book to feature Finnegan Gilhooly, a Pinkerton man trying to find his place in a changing America of the 1880s. The first books dealt with coal mining tensions and the Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania. Now we got out west as he works for ranchers and deals with outlaws during the last phase of the territory's time as a frontier. It's still the old west, but it isn't as cut and dry as usual. After in a jailhouse meeting with his decade

While I love reading all over the mystery/thriller genre, I have a few subgenres that I particularly enjoy. “Geezer noir” (featuring elderly sleuths, like the Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club series) is a particular favorite. A close second would be mysteries featuring neurodivergent characters, which I attribute to reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” by Mark Haddon over 20 years ago. To this day it remains one of my favorite books, primarily because

Max Allan Collins applied both of his skills as a detective fiction writer and detective fiction historian The Return Of The Maltese Falcon, a continuation of Hammett's classic. He credibly delivers Sam Spade and the returning characters as well as introducing a few new ones that fit perfectly in the world. I was able to ask Mr. Collins some questions about the book, his comic book Ms. Tree, that has been fully reprinted, and the sequel to a classic detective film he did a di

In First Do No Harm, the latest book to feature the private eye team of Lydia Chin and Bill Smith, author S.J. Rozan finds a unique setting. Partially due to a favor for Lydia's doctor brother, Elliot, they take the case of Jordy Karazim, a morgue assistant (or diener), who woke up in a River Valley Hospital area the staff uses to either nap or hook up, next to the dead body of Nurse Sophia Scott. He claims innocence, even though his father, and brother both prominent doctor

Before V.I. Warshawski and Kinsey Malone, Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone knocked down the door for female private detectives in the novel Edwin of Iron Shoes. Other than gender, she stood out from other investigators by working for the San Francisco legal co-op All Souls, using her gumshoe skills to serve the downtrodden. Recently, Stark House Press released a collection of short stories dealing with the character in The Lost Coast and Other Sharon McCone stories. It kicks off

Kelli Stanley's latest, The Reckoning, deals with a lady on the run in 1985 with many secrets, dealing with a town of secrets, some tied to it's marijuana cash crop, others to the young girls who have gone missing in the past years. It was great to get together with Kelli again and ask a few questions. SCOTT MONTGOMERY: Which drew you first to the story- the character of Renata Drake or setting a story in eighties Garberville, CA? KELLI STANLEY: I think most writers, at one p

I like to read every kind of mystery, from hard-boiled noir all the way to cozies involving baking and cats (preferably both!). But what I most love to read is books where people who are outwardly fine citizens of the most upstanding kind who are actually truly horrible people. And as fans of The Hunting Wives know (either the book or the Netflix series, pick your poison), no one does that whole wealthy, pious adults acting like absolute heathens better than May Cobb. The aut

One Foot In Hell reads like a classic fifties psycho-sexual noir that also looks as the dark society of small town America. You wouldn't be surprised if author Wilen Shaw read most of Jim Thompson's output up to that time before banging this out on the Remington. He practically strips his tale down to its genre bones, making it both sleek and engaging with little pretension. Larry Crenshaw lives the American middle class dream in Hadsville, Kentucky as successful accountant

I was excited to read Return of the Maltese Falcon with Max Allan Collins giving private eye Sam Spade another shot at the jewel encrusted bird statue. Not only is Collins a master craftsman of crime fiction, particularly when it comes to the PI yarn, he is also a student of the genre with a deep understanding of the its past. He also has experience in continuing the adventures of famed hard boiled heroes, notably his friend Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. He applies all of t