Robert Lopresti

Sep 2021 15

Monkey Business: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Films of the Marx Brothers

2021 Articles, Mysteryrat's Maze

by Josh Pachter

KRL readers might perhaps know me as the editor of a recent series of “inspired by” anthologies: The Beat of Black Wings: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Joni Mitchell (Untreed Reads, 2020), Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel (Untreed Reads, 2021), and The Great Filling Station Holdup: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Jimmy Buffett (Down and Out Books, 2021).

Only the Good Die Young: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Billy Joel Edited by Josh Pachter

2021 Articles, Mysteryrat's Maze, Sandra Murphy

by Sandra Murphy

The anthology kicks off with Why Judy Why written by Robert Lopresti. Judith finds herself sitting in a police interrogation room, being grilled by two detectives. She seems cooperative enough about what she’s done, but the detectives aren’t clear about one thing: motive. They keep asking, “Why, Judy, why?”, but even if she tells them, they’ll never understand.

The Anthology of Cozy-Noir Edited by Andrew MacRae

2014 Articles, Cynthia Chow, Mysteryrat's Maze

by Cynthia Chow

While the term “cozy-noir” may seem contradictory, it does make perfect sense in this collection of thirteen stories that embrace the mix of dark moodiness within familiar suburban settings. While the stories often take place in the small communities familiar to most cozy mysteries, often simmering just beneath the surface is a sense of menace and betrayal that edges them over to the noir side of fiction.