Giving Bloggers the Credit They’re Due

It used to be that every mid-September brought Book Blogger Appreciation Week. That tradition was apparently begun in 2008 by Amy Riley, the Southern California author of a blog called My Friend Amy, and was intended “to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading.” From what I can discern, this annual Web-wide endeavor had the misfortune to peter out in 2013. By then, the blogosphere was evolving rapidly, with many people who’d once thought it a splendid idea to start writing their own blogs finally buckling under the pressure of having to update them on a regular basis. As anyone who’s managed a blog will tell you, there’s a lot of work that goes into keeping these sites active. It’s far easier to every once in a while post a brief something on Facebook and be done with the matter.

Those very difficulties, though, make it important to recognize the folks who have kept at this enterprise. Although there have been many casualties in the crime-fiction-blogging world over the last few years, including a few sites that have fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic struck this last spring, there’s still a healthy crowd of people devoted to “the promotion and preservation of a literate culture.”

So, although this isn’t officially Blogger Appreciation Week, I am going to celebrate it as such. Below you will find 20 of my favorite blogs dealing with crime, mystery, and thriller fiction. Those penned principally by one person are clearly identified.

“TomCat” — Beneath the Stains of Time
Kristopher Zgorski — BOLO Books
Various authors — Bookgasm
Elizabeth Foxwell — The Bunburyist
Les Blatt — Classic Mysteries
Various authors — Do Some Damage
Martin Edwards — ‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’
Jiro Kimura — The Gumshoe Site
B.V. Lawson — In Reference to Murder
“Puzzle Doctor” — In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel
Kevin R. Tipple — Kevin’s Corner
Lesa Holstine — Lesa’s Book Critiques
Bill Selnes — Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan
Janet Rudolph — Mystery Fanfare
Steve Lewis — Mystery*File Blog
Various authors — Mystery Scene Blog
Various authors — Paperback Warrior
John “J.F.” Norris — Pretty Sinister Books
Andrew Nette — Pulp Curry
Ayo Onatade — Shotsmag Confidential

This list does not feature only book review blogs, but instead takes a more catholic view of genre coverage. It also leaves off bigger sites, such as CrimeReads and Criminal Element, that aren’t strictly “blogs,” and others that don’t deal principally with works in this genre.

Applauding those resources will just have to wait for another time.