Nonfiction

ANTHOLOGIES

  • “The Short Mystery,” in How To Write A Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America, edited by Lee Child and Laurie R. King (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
  • “James Ellroy Previews Blood’s a Rover,” in Conversations with James Ellroy, edited by Steven Powell (University Press of Mississippi, 2012)

NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES

AARP: The Magazine

The Armchair Detective

  • “Tracking Dirt onto the Parlor Rug: The Mystery Novels of Michael Malone,” Summer 1995
  • “Bloody Kin: The Southern Mysteries of Margaret Maron,” Winter 1994

Los Angeles Review of Books

Metro Magazine

Mississippi Quarterly

Mystery Scene

  • “Tales from the Tar Heel State: The North Carolina Mysteries of Margaret Maron,” Fall 2013
  • “Where the Ripped Edges Peel Away,” an essay on Elizabeth Hand’s Cassandra Neary novels, Spring 2012
  • “The Celebrated Poirot,” Winter 2012
  • “The Woman’s War,” an interview with Sarah R. Shaber, Fall 2011
  • “Louis Bayard: The School of Night,” Spring 2011
  • “Deadline! Journalists in Crime Films,” Winter 2011
  • “The Write Stuff: Crime Films Starring Writers,” Fall 2010
  • “Nevada Barr: New Orleans Bound,” Fall 2009
  • “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Great Romantic Crime Movies,” Spring 2009, and “Love Bites: Romantic Crime Films, Part 2,” Summer 2009 (cover story)
  • “Heartbreaker: Hannah Berry’s Britten and Brülightly,” Spring 2009
  • “Miss Jane Marple: Spinster Sleuth Extraordinaire,” Winter 2009
  • “Murder in Black & White: Novels of the Civil Rights Era,” Fall 2008
  • “Do the Right Thing: Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird,” Fall 2007; reprinted here on the novel’s 50th anniversary
  • “Last Laughs: 10 Comic Crime Films,” Spring 2007
  • “Visions of Sugar Plums: An Interview with Janet Evanovich,” Holiday 2002

North Carolina Literary Review

The Washington Independent Review of Books

The Washington Post