Episode Three is now live! Original airdate 22 Sep 21 Episode Three: Traveling – Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith introduces the concept of criss-cross for the perfect murder. As these things always go, it’s not so perfect after all. Highsmith is seldom interested in ‘whodunit’ and instead follows up on what happens next. Traveling…
Tag: crime
Surreal Noir: Ep2 on YouTube!
Episode Two is now live! EPISODE TWO Original Audio 25 Aug 21 Episode Two: Surreal portraiture—-Muse or artist? Can you fall in love with a picture? Can you fall in love with someone from a picture? What about self-portrait? How do you conjure the image of yourself? How much do you reveal? How much do you…
Surreal Noir: Ep1 on YouTube!
I’m finally in the Noirvember spirit! It’s been a busy time, that’s my excuse. But when I saw that YouTube was now hosting podcasts, I thought it would be the perfect time to hotwire SURREAL NOIR and get back into the rat race. It’s going to take a bit of doing, because I have to…
Ripley & Saltburn
I’m off to the EUPop conference soon — my last formal academic conference (probably, maybe–except for pop culture…) — and because I won’t get around to other things before I depart, here’s a peek at my slides for that talk on two related topics (with a bunch of other things [surrealism!] shoehorned in because that’s…
Ripley on the ‘flix
I had equal parts of anticipation and dread for this new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith‘s The Talented Mr Ripley especially as it was by schmaltzy Spielberg’s pal who wrote Schindler’s List and the film Hannibal. I take it all back: he read the book — or rather books as it became clear. Even better, he…
FREE Hard-Boiled Witch #1
From the 27th to the 31st of this month get Book One of the HARD-BOILED WITCH series for free to celebrate Dundee Day–the home of the titular witch and her oversized cat familiar. Hecate Sidlaw eats punks like you for breakfast — at least that’s what her familiar Henry claims. When someone needs a protection…
#Noirvember – Gladys
GLADYS She was trouble. I didn’t even know how much trouble that gall was. I never suspected that she was behind the things that were going down for years. But then she made her presence known: well known. Put me in the hospital. At least then I knew who I was dealing with. Yet it…
Quarry by Jane White
Quarry Jane White (Boiler House Press: Recovered Books 2023) FULL REVIEW HERE! I was fortunate to be pointed toward this 1967 novel by Anne Billson, who wrote the introduction to this new edition. It’s a wonderful example of the flexibility of the crime genre. White employs familiar tropes to unfamiliar ends, brings in the mythic…
Crime Fiction Studies: Cornell Woolrich Issue
Crime Fiction Studies v4n1 Cornell Woolrich and Transmedia Noir Thanks Rob King for editing the collection which puts together a variety of topics, My essay: Transforming Black Alibi‘s Jaguar into The Leopard Man K. A. Laity 4(1), pp. 62–77 Abstract | Full Text | References | PDF/EPUB If your library doesn’t have access, let me know and I can get a copy of my…