Gabby Petito Story Boosted

By True-Crime Craze

It’s the story of the year, and almost everyone one who follows the news has a theory—or theories—of what happened to Gabby Petito and her fiancé Brian Laundrie. It’s a story of death, deception, intrigue, and disappearance unfolding before our very eyes, unraveling in real time as if part of a Netflix or HBO miniseries. In fact, as reported by the Associated Press, Petito’s disappearance and death, and the police hunt for Laundrie, have generated a whirlwind online, with a multitude of armchair detectives and others sharing tips, possible sightings, and theories by way of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Whether the frenzy of attention and internet sleuthing is helping the investigation is not clear, but it has illuminated the intersection between social media and the public’s fascination with true-crime stories. Speculations have picked up steam on Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter, and users have delved into Petito’s Spotify music playlists, Laundrie’s reading habits, and the couple’s digitally bookmarked trails. Michael Alcazar, a retired New York City detective and professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that Petito’s Instagram account gave investigators places to start and that social media became a rich source of tips. “Instagram is kind of like the photo on the milk carton, except it reaches so many people quickly,” he said.

The Humans Is The Surprise

Best Horror Film of the Year

The film version of Stephen Katam’s hit play The Humans essentially is the story of a dysfunctional family Thanksgiving dinner, but many reviewers (and moviegoers) are calling it the surprise horror film of the year. Not horror in the slasher sense, or even in the subtle mode of Jordan Peele’s 2017 thriller Get Out. But in setting the adaptation of his award-winning one-act play in a dilapidated New York apartment, Katam draws from a quiver full of auditory and visual cues that literally have the audience sitting at the very edge of their seats. As Benjamin Lee writes in The Guardian, “Karam treats his family drama like it’s a horror—he’s previously called it 'a family play that is sort of infected by my love of the thriller genre'—a quotidian spiral shrouded in an ever-creeping, and ever-unknowable, darkness. Lightbulbs go out at an alarming speed and, as in many Manhattan apartments, natural light is almost nowhere to be found. The new home becomes a haunted house of sorts (albeit one that New Yorkers will find strangely charming) and, like the very best examples within genre fiction, it brings the fears of the characters simmering to the surface." And The Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon says, “Unexpected, and a boon for this cinematic leap from the stage, is that The Humans would also be the most pulse-racing horror film of the year.” Look for it in theaters November 24.

What The Devil Really Is In

The Briefcase In Pulp Fiction?

The briefcase in Pulp Fiction is, without question, one of the most well-known MacGuffins in film history.

(A MacGuffin, for those who don't know the definition, is an object that propels a story forward but, realistically, has no bearing on the story whatsoever.) From the moment Quentin Tarantino released the film in 1994, audiences have been wondering—and theorizing about—what the glowing object/substance is in the case held by Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson). Tarantino has said many times that it’s whatever the audience wants it to be, and it seems the audience wants it to be many different things. The prevailing theory today is that it’s Marcellus Wallace's soul, which the powerful gangster allegedly sold to the devil in exchange for his prominence and success. The evidence? The scar on the back of his head, which is clearly visible throughout most of the film, is where his soul was extracted. And the combination on the briefcase is 666, ostensibly the mark of the devil. Or it could be diamonds, a reference to a consignment of such gems stolen from a jewelry store in QT’s Reservoir Dogs. Or it could be the gold Elvis suit from the film True Romance, which Tarantino wrote. Another theory still is that the briefcase contains an Oscar that Marcellus stole for his failed actress wife, Mia Wallace. Or it could just be…a big, fat egg. Egg MacGuffin, anybody? Read more...

How Ian Fleming’s Wartime

Espionage Shaped James Bond

It’s no secret that a number of spy novelists have drawn on their own experience when writing fiction (think John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth). One of the most notable of these, of course, is Ian Fleming, whose war time exploits remain a subject of much fascination, as well as the subject of a new book—Ian Fleming’s War: The Inspiration of 007—by author Mark Simmons. In 1940, the young creator of James Bond traveled to Gibraltar on an intelligence-gathering mission designed to influence Spain’s neutrality in the war. This was the setting for Operation Golden Eye, a name familiar to many Bond fans and Fleming enthusiasts, and also caused him to cross paths with OSS head William J. Donovan, who also was in the area to gather information. As Tobias Carroll says in an article in Inside Hook, the mission didn’t feature any watch cameras or heavily modified automobiles, but it does feature scenic locales and secret tunnels situated within the Rock of Gibraltar. “It’s a fascinating window into Fleming’s work during the war, the ways in which certain moments may have influenced his subsequent fiction, and the difficult decisions that shaped his view of espionage going forward,” he writes.

15 Must-Read Mysteries And

Thrillers By Diverse Authors

Like nearly every other industry, the publishing world skews white and straight—but that is changing. Many agents are hearing from editors and publishers—particularly those who trend younger and are more prone to thematic innovative—that diversity is the key word. From Hye-young Pyun to Rachel Howzell Hall to S.A. Cosby, there are many authors of color and/or within the LGBTQ community whose work is starting to be recognized as some of the best in the crime writing. Here’s a list courtesy of Kelly McClure via Murder-Mayhem.com of 15 diverse voices in this ever-changing genre. Additionally, the L.A. Times weighed in on diversity in crime fiction with this article earlier this year.

Look For Indigo Road Next Year

What others have said about Jack Connor:

"Bunzel peels away the layers of mystery like a master of the genre” —T. Jefferson Parker

“Sweeps you in with intrigue and authority and never lets you go.” —Michael Connelly

"Raw, irreverent, and witty, Jack Connor is someone you want with you in a foxhole or the bloody back roads of South Carolina." —Fmr. Secretary of Defense William Cohen

“Lights up the Southern sky with taut, exciting action.” —Michael McGarrity

[Cover image subject to change]