Surveillance Video Is Everywhere…

So Who’s Minding The Store(age)?

Nothing we do is done without the possibility (or probability) that it’s being caught by a surveillance camera somewhere. From traffic cams to video doorbells to cell phones, it’s almost impossible to escape them. According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal last year, approximately 770 million surveillance cameras are in use today, a number that’s expected to jump to one billion by 2021. We crime writers make use of these literary devices whenever we need to and, conversely, find a way to ignore them when they get in the way of a good plot. Fact is, they’re near-ubiquitous, and you may even be reading this article on one. But have you ever stopped to consider—as Laura Griffin does in this CrimeReads story—who’s shooting all this video, and what happens to those trillions of individual frames once they’re captured?

TRUE CRIME

Potential Whistle-Blowers Against Kazakh

Oligarchs Found Dead on U.S. Road Trip

This is one of those articles that, from time to time, snags my attention and causes me to run it through my mental “thriller mill.” Five years ago, a pair of potential whistle-blowers who knew the inside story of a company operated by three of the richest men in Kazakhstan were both found dead at a motel in Springfield, Missouri, midway through a Route 66 road trip on rented Harley-Davidsons. Initial cause of death was thought to be malaria (seriously?), but a subsequent investigation has led the FBI to believe the two men were potential witnesses in a massive corruption inquiry into a mining company established by the trio of oligarchs. The incident is detailed by author Tom Burgis in Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World, and he recently spoke with The Daily Beast about it.

Ten Brilliant Detectives Who Had

Addictive Behaviors

If you write crime fiction or thrillers, chances are at least one of your main protagonists is, or has been, addicted to something. It’s an accepted fact that a brilliant fictional detective must be broken in some way, which may explain why they’re capable of seeing clues the rest of us normal sorts will miss. Alcohol, drugs, sex, or all of the above—the more complicated the character, the more interesting he or she becomes to the reader (and the writer). While I was mixing myself a martini the other night, in celebration of finishing the latest draft of my current novel, I began wondering about the most well-known sleuths in contemporary fiction—and how their addicted personas have evolved on the printed page. Here’s a list (from Barnes and Noble) of ten detectives who are “alternatively brilliant, messy, arrogant, and tough”—and affected by their addictive weaknesses.

Finding Light In The “Dark Side” Of YouTube

As more and more people face entirely new daily and nightly live/work situations, hundreds of thousands are finding themselves lost in the “Dark Side of You Tube.” They spend countless hours surfing through an endless supply of true crime channels that feature everyone from investigative journalists to bestselling authors who chronicle criminal investigations, and share their findings with an eager online audience. As with all things digital, however, it's easy to go stir-crazy if there isn’t a “curator” to pre-sort all the offerings—especially if you don’t know how thoroughly researched the content actually is. (Case in point: the thousands of Qanon videos that have popped up in the last few months.) With this in mind, here’s a list of some of the best true crime YouTube channels produced by reputable sources and/or popular citizen sleuths with a passion for true crime reporting.

OPINION

Parasite: A Good, But Not Great, Film

After everything I’d seen and read about the Oscar-winning film Parasite, I wanted to love it. I really did. But after watching the South Korean movie Saturday night, I can only say that I only liked it. I get that it’s an allegory about greed and social class, a black comedy that doubles (triples?) as a thriller and a family drama, and supposedly much more. Director Bong Joon Ho certainly created a thought-provoking parable about parasite and host, but my problem with it—and maybe this was his intent—is that there’s no one you really end up caring about. I found it highly entertaining and was glued to my seat but, in the end, I felt no empathy for any of the characters, none of whom seemed to experience the slightest bit of personal catharsis. I really wanted Parasite to be better than Jo-Jo Rabbit, which I still believe should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but it wasn’t.

Why You May Not Feel Like Writing…

Or Doing Anything Else, Either

I have a lot of writer friends on Facebook, and one of the most frequent grievances I read about is how difficult it is for some of them to work on their latest book. Ex-pat Peter Olson, who lives in Ethiopia, describes in a recent blog post a similar feeling of lethargy as a “frustrating sense of ‘molasses’ clogging your thoughts. A fatigue you just can’t seem to shake. Feeling ‘tired’ or ‘worn-out’ as you … journey through normal days that simply don’t feel as normal as they should.” Turns out there’s an understandable, biological reason people feel this way, As Olson points out, “When someone moves to a completely new culture [or routine], many of the ‘autopilots’ your brain uses for thousands of small decisions every day become ineffective. In a similar way, your current environment has likely changed sufficiently enough that many of your own ‘autopilots’ are no longer working. All to say: You are experiencing “culture shock.”

Michael Cohen’s Book On

President Hits Shelves Today

Disloyal: The True Story…—penned by President Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen—hits bookstores today, and Skyhorse Publishing's Tony Lyons said he believes the book could be the best selling title in the company's 14-year history. Fact is, Lyons says he’s as surprised as everyone else that his company is publishing the book at all, telling Publishers Weekly he was shocked that the bigger New York houses couldn't work out a deal with Cohen, who then decided to self-publish it. Department of Justice authorities returned Cohen to prison from home confinement in an effort to prevent him from finishing the book, which a judge ruled was a violation of his First Amendment rights. "[Cohen] has so much to say,” Lyons said. “This book will make an impact, [and] it is also a really terrific read."

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