Conversation Starters

As a journalist, I’m always been drawn to interesting interviews—especially, now, those with mystery and crime writers. Here are a few that you might also enjoy:

Nicholas Meyer answers questions from CrimeReads about his new, fourth Sherlock Holmes novel, The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols. In that same online publication, Joseph Kanon (The Accomplice) tells “why spies are the ideal subjects for writers.” MysteryPeople’s Scott Montgomery chats briefly with James Sallis (Sarah Jane). Abir Mukherjee tells The Scotsman that he began his latest Captain Sam Wyndham mystery, Death in the East, “as my homage to [Agatha] Christie.” Fine Books & Collections shoots a few queries at Sara Gran (The Infinite Blacktop). Speaking of Mysteries host Nancie Clare gets to know Frank R. Heller, author of The Secret Empress. Donis Casey tells blogger Lesa Holstine about her new spin-off novel, The Wrong Girl, set in 1920s Hollywood. Spybrary Podcast host Shane Whaley goes one on one with Steve Vogel, the author of Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation. And Barry Forshaw talks with the Camden New Journal about Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide and why he’s worried about the future of crime and mystery fiction. “It’s still the most popular genre,” Forshaw says, “but the trouble is we are so overexposed now to middle-aged alcoholic coppers, every other book that I’m sent to review is essentially Rebecca or Jane Eyre in which a woman finds she’s married to a man who may be a murderer or committed some crime. Sooner or later people are going to tire of that.”