Like many places at the time, Mexico City in the early 1970’s was a cold-war battleground; chaos was all consuming and danger ever present. As viscerally demonstrated in the movie Roma, paramilitary groups could attack student protestors with impunity. In that case, it was an outing to buy a crib that landed a pregnant woman […]
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The Maid, by Nita Prose, published January 4, 2022, is an absorbing mystery that will engage its readers from the start with its elements of the movie Clue, Agatha Christie-esque puzzle, and satisfying twists. Main character Molly Gray (or, Molly Maid as she is known among acquaintances) narrates the story, letting readers into her […]
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Got Covid? The flu? RSV? Pharmacy all out of cough syrup? If you need to park on the couch with a funny movie, look no further than Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery! This sequel to writer and director Rian Johnson’s 2019 smash hit Knives Out is now streaming on Netflix after completing its one-week […]
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The Dry is a 2020 film adaptation of the Mystery Crime Thriller debut novel by Jane Harper published in 2016. Investigator Aaron Falk played by Eric Bana gets a note. It says, “Luke lied. You lied. You need to be here for the funeral.” The “funeral” is for Falk’s teenage friend, Luke Hadler, his wife […]
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In a 2009 Guardian article, award-winning novelist John Banville was questioned about whether his Detective novels deserved to be treated as true literature. “When I get up in the morning,” he said dryly, “I ask my wife whether I should write a Booker Prize winning novel, or another bestselling crime book. And we always come […]
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Tom Hardy! Gary Oldman! Noomi Rapace! Have you heard of this movie? I hadn’t either. It’s a detective story and more. Way more. In fact, it’s excessive. By Nazreen Booth In service of my foray into movie criticism, I chose a film I loved. Then, when I sat down, excited for my upteenth viewing of […]
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Book Review by Bianca Blengino The Lady in the Lake is a noir piece by Laura Lippman. The setting is the city of Baltimore in 1966, a time of shifting societal norms around race and gender. Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz makes her own change by leaving a seemingly happy marriage to create an independent passion […]
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In Jean Marc-Vallee’s series Sharp Objects, we follow troubled reporter Camille Preaker (Amy Adams) as she reluctantly returns to her hometown, Wind Gap, to cover the brutal murders of two young girls. Upon her return to the rural Missouri town, Camille must contend with her mother Adora (Patricia Clarkson), and her half-sister Amma (Eliza Scanlen), […]
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A true representation of the unflappable sleuth we’ve known and loved since the first Nancy Drew book was published in 1930.
First published in 1985 (coincidently the year I was born), Bufo & Spallanzani, written by the renowned Brazilian writer Rubem Fonseca, combines different crimes and stories, tangled up by the murderer of Delfina Delamare, the wife of a millionaire. The novel tells the story through Gustavo Flavio’s perspective, a writer in crisis that is struggling […]
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Berkeley Mystery Fiction 