Daytime TV Is The New Normal

For Those Who Work At Home

In the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic many researchers expected television viewership, including streaming, to spike and then return to seasonal averages. Interestingly, that has not happened. In fact, daytime TV usage has grown consistently—and is showing no signs of returning to “normal.” Back in August, many consumers in the U.S. were still adjusting to working remotely, complementing their workdays with video content, as 65% of respondents in a Nielsen Remote Workers survey said they watched TV or streamed video content during their work breaks. In other cases, video became a work companion, as 50% of respondents said they watched TV or streamed video content with sound (50% did so without sound) while they were actively working. Now, after living in a pandemic for nine months, daytime has become a second primetime for total TV consumption among many former office professionals and managers. During a typical work week, at-home professionals are engaging with TV two hours and 10 minutes more than they were a year ago. Plus, the uptick in daytime consumption has not negatively affected evening viewing, as these same viewers increased their usage between 5 pm and 8 pm as well.

10 Great Crime Novels

And Thrillers In 2020

As people around the globe found themselves under lockdown or self-imposed quarantine over the past nine months, millions began reading more. Sales of eBooks are up for the year, and even print book purchases have kept close pace with those a year ago, although local booksellers have been hammered by lack of in-store customers. In any event, the pandemic has seen a steady stream of excellent new crime fiction, despite multiple challenges faced by publishers, writers, and booksellers. Seattle Times reviewer Adam Woog compiled this list of his 10 favorites in the genre, including two of my favorites of the year: James Lee Burke’s incredible A Private Cathedral, and Three Hours In Paris, a World War II thriller written by my friend Cara Black.

A Primer To 21st

Century Slasher Novels

Slasher films saw a sharp spike in popularity in the mid- to late-1970s with such luminary flicks as Black Christmas, Halloween, and Friday the 13th. A decade later they dominated the multiplex as sequels and reboots were produced by the dozens. The “dead teenagers” genre was briefly revived in the '90s by Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer and, later, the Saw series. More recently quieter, more “intelligent” horror stories have been all the rage (think Hereditary and Get Out). What’s interesting is that some adolescent fans of those early movies have become readers (as older people tend to do), which is one explanation for the increasing popularity of “slasher novels.” As Andrew Shaffer writes in Crime Reads, “Modern slasher novels run the gamut from campy to genuinely horrifying, but all owe a debt to the slasher movies that laid the groundwork. Readers have, of course, internalized the movie clichés, whether they know it or not. Some writers subvert these expectations; others play right into them.” Here’s a list of some of the most notable from the past decade.

TRUE CRIME

Suspect Arrested In

40-Year-Old Idaho Murder

Forty years ago, Dan Woolley was shot in the parking lot of a small-town bar in Clayton, Idaho. The shooter crossed the street to the town’s other tavern, ordered a drink, and declared, “I just killed a man.” Then the suspect disappeared—until last year, when word came that he was living in Texas under an assumed name. Over the years the incident had grown as gossip thrived, including rumors that involved the rodeo circuit and a reputed Las Vegas casino crime boss. What did not change were the facts of the case: a couple of Montana boys who worked the mines were at the bar, and had flirted with a woman. In some versions of the story they took umbrage when the woman’s boyfriend came storming in and hit her, and in some accounts, a scuffle broke out between the Montana boys and the man, identified by witnesses as a former pro rodeo cowboy named Walter Mason. The bartender and Dan Woolley jumped in, perhaps to break things up, or to help Mason. Then, witnesses said, Mason ran to his truck and returned with a gun and fired twice, hitting one of the Montanans in the arm and Dan Woolley in the face. Read more …

The Best Crime Dramas

And Thrillers On Netflix

For those of you whose viewing daytime TV viewing has increased (see Nielsen article, above), Mystery Tribune has compiled a list of the 57 best crime dramas and thrillers currently being shown on Netflix. Similar to last year’s list (before the pandemic), the 2020 line-up incorporates the feedback and comments of viewers on what shows they have loved. Additionally, the Tribune has removed some of the older shows that many viewers have already seen, a change that has created room for some international titles, including Australian, French, and Scandinavian programs. For new subscribers or fans of classics  who wish to see programs mentioned in previous years’ lists, the 2019 edition can be viewed here, the 2018 list is here, and 2017’s rundown is here.

Knives Out! A Guide For Writers

Who Need To Sharpen Their Craft

Crime writers love metaphors and similes, and none works better to describe the editing process than comparing it to using a paring knife. Just as a sharp blade can cut a paper-thin slice of cucumber or tomato, the right tool can shave just enough pith off a sentence to give it the right taste. As PJ Parrish (authors Kelly Nichols and Kristy Montee) observe, a writer can’t get the job done without acquiring the proper tools. You have to learn the craft. And here’s something you’re not going to like to hear: The tool you seem to lack is the one you need the most. “Are you bad at plotting?” they write. “Does your story have a thicket of sub-plots obscuring the true story? Does your plot lack dramatic arcs? Does your middle act sag?” If the answer to any of these is “yes,” go to the KillZoneBlog website and enter your problem into the search box. Voila…you have professional help right at your fingertips—which you should take care not to slice off with the above-mentioned paring knife. You’re welcome.

Great Reads For True Crime Lovers

December seems to be the month for recapping the best (and sometimes the worst) of the previous year. With that tradition in mind, Novel Suspects developed a list (not ranked) of the best books for true crime lovers, ranging from Catch And Kill, Ronan Farrow’s investigation into Harvey Weinstein's decades of alleged rape, sexual assault, and sexual abuse of women, to John E. Douglas’ The Killer Across the Table, an account of in-depth his chilling pursuit of, and eventual prison confrontation with Joseph Paul Franklin, a white nationalist serial killer. Other writers on the list include James Patterson, John Connolly, Kate Winkler Dawson, and Becky Cooper, whose book We Keep the Dead Close was profiled in the Nov. 23rd issue of BunzelGram.

COMING IN FEBRUARY

“Raw, irreverent, and witty, Reed Bunzel’s story of a tattooed war vet turned temporary private eye snaps, crackles, and pops with authenticity. War-tested, street smart, and sassy, Jack Connor is someone you want with you in a foxhole or the bloody back roads of South Carolina.”

—Former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, bestselling author of Blink Of An Eye and Dragon Fire