BunzelGram

April 1, 2024    Issue #173

 

This Week's Thoughts on Mysteries, Thrillers, and All Things Crime

As a kid, I absolutely loved April Fool’s Day. Couldn’t get enough of it, and I pulled my share of pranks…most of which were the product of a young boy’s expanding mind. Fast forward a couple of years and—true confession time—I joined in on an elaborate joke that almost horribly went awry, and easily could have ended in tragedy. That was the abrupt end to my prankster life and, except for one long-running family gag [IFKYK], my days of blowing all the Styrofoam pellets from a bean bag chair under a dorm room door, or leaving fake dog vomit on my mom’s kitchen floor, are long gone. In any event, I invite you to enjoy the spirit of the day…but try not to do anything you might come to regret later.

— Reed Bunzel

Many Slasher Fans Hated April Fool’s

Day…Because The Joke Was On Them

     One bad joke can kill the vibe—or kick off a series of killings. The 1986 mystery/horror film April Fool’s Day had fun with both of these ideas, as a group of college friends spend spring break by heading to an island mansion. On the boat ride there, their pranks on each other cause one of them to suffer a serious injury, forcing the remaining friends to stay on the island as the boat turns back for medical help. The hostess, Muffy (Deborah Foreman), tries to lighten the mood through dribble glasses and whoopee cushions, but then the jokes get stranger. Soon, in true slasher fashion, the group of friends diminishes as [spoiler alert] a killer seemingly takes them out, leaving Kit (Amy Steel, in her second role as a “final girl”), her boyfriend, and Muffy are left.

     As Chris Sasaguay wrote in Collider, the ending comes as a surprise to slasher fans who think they’ve seen it all, and many were both dismayed and fooled by the final revelation. April 1 is a day all about innocent, harmless jokes, or what should be harmless, and this movie celebrates that like any holiday horror should.

     Reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are mixed, but generally generous: “The film authentically honors the pranking nature of those traditions for a surprisingly effective slasher”; “A clever and fresh take on not only an oversaturated genre but also an intriguing take on one of the most fool-hearted days of the year”; and “It's amazing how successful a slasher movie can be when you actually like the characters and they're all mostly fleshed out.”

 
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This Mystery-Writers' Prank Speaks To Human Guilt And Gullibility

     As today is April Fools’ Day, it’s time to revisit an old prank widely attributed to both Edgar Allen Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, although accounts of the practical joke extend back hundreds of years. Verifiable or not, it goes like this: One night Poe [or Doyle] wrote a note to five of his friends, to be delivered anonymously. It would have no signature, and would contain no information other than to say, “We have been discovered…flee!” At Poe/Doyle’s next dinner party, his social circle was abuzz with the sudden, and total, disappearance of one of the people who had received the note. The person was never heard from again.

     According to Gizmodo’s Esther Inglis-Arkell, the prank very likely was either a] used by politicians of one party to get members of the other party to leave town before an important vote or, b] penned by a bishop to rid himself of those of his priests who were corrupt…the punchline being that all of the priests fled. Whether the prank is true or not, the very concept hints at the secret lives that some percentage of the population may be living: “What percentage of the population, were they to receive such a note, would take the advice?" she asks. "What percentage would react in any way? Obviously, the idea is flawed. It wouldn't just measure for deep dark secrets, but for extreme gullibility as well.”

 
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Real-Life Crimes That Are

So Much Stranger Than Fiction

     As is probably said too often, truth is often stranger—wilder, more volatile, and somehow even more unbelievable—than fiction. Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to true crime, and author Emily Bain Murphy recently wrote in Crime Reads about a few true crimes that were far stranger than the fiction and non-fiction books they inspired.

     Consider Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Set at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the book’s narrative snakes between the fair’s renowned architect Daniel Burnham and Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, a psychopath and swindler—and arguably the United States’ first serial killer. In a similar vein, the nonfiction book Killers of the Flower Moon, and its subsequent movie release, details the systematic and calculated murders of members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. The story is a complex web of evil and the crimes jaw-dropping, as the Osage become some of the richest people in America after the discovery of oil on their land.

     Novels, too, often shed light on true crime events by weaving them into otherwise fictional plots. For instance, several of Louise Penny's novels are based on fact, from the 1989 École Polytechnique shooting in Canada (fictionalized in A World of Curiosities) to the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story of Gerald Bull, a Canadian engineer who developed a Supergun called Project Babylon for Saddam Hussein, which was woven into another of Penny’s classic Gamache novels, The Nature of the Beast.

 
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Forbes Magazine: The 30 Top

Mystery Books Of All Time

     Recently at an event for the launch of my new novel Beyond All Doubt, I was asked a question that comes up at virtually every writers’ conference: What is the difference between a mystery and a thriller? Last week, Josh Lora tackled this issue in Forbes magazine, noting that, “Mystery novels are books in which an event (usually a murder) is described, but the perpetrator is not revealed until the third act. The narrative thrust of the novel comes from a person (usually a detective or a police officer, but in recent times this has changed) using clues to solve the crime or uncover the truth behind the event.

     “While there is overlap between thrillers and mysteries, thrillers rely on suspense,” he continued. “The narrative thrust usually comes from a chase, with the protagonist either hunting or being hunted by an unseen assailant. Thrillers build towards a propulsive climax where the perpetrator is confronted, and the genre is defined by its reliance on twists and turns.” To help further delineate the two, Lora compiled a list of [arguably] the top 30 mystery books of all time, from the minds of such icons as Agatha Christie, Michael Connelly, Stephen King, and Janet Evanovich.

 
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Beyond All Doubt: These Are The

Scariest Horror Movies of All Time

     For some inexplicable reason, most of us love to get scared senseless in front of a glowing screen. As Deanna Janes recent wrote in Harpers Bazaar, “There's just something about exploring the dark side of humanity from the comfort of a safety bubble that never gets old, and our collective love for scary movies runs deep. From classic horror movies that are still killer today—such as Psycho, The Exorcist, and The Innocents—to artsy elevated frights that tap into social commentary and get your noodle grinding—Get Out, It Follows, and Hereditary, for instance—we can't get enough.”

     With this in mind, she compiled a list of the best horror movies that not only tell great stories, but whose scare tactics chill to the viewer to the bone. These films range from Danny Boyle’s post-apocalyptic zombie tale 28 Days Later, starring Oscar-winning actor Cillian Murphy, to Kyle Edward Ball’s experiential independent project Skinamarink, to the shoestring-budget psychological thriller from the directing team who call themselves Perry Home Video titled Soft Liquid Center.

 
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ALSO:

 

15 Thrillers and Their Unforgettable Female Leads

We all love seeing women who can kick ass and take names, and these 15 mysteries and thrillers showcase some of our favorite female leads by female authors. From detectives investigating cults and cartels to widows banding together to uncover the hidden depths of their seemingly perfect lives, these are some books not to miss. [Novel Suspects]

 

Five Mysteries And Thrillers With A Reality TV Twist

For those of you who are fans of reality TV—think Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, Alone, and most recently, Squid Game—here are five mysteries and thrillers full of lies, deceit, back-stabbing, and mind games. [Crime Reads]

 

Publishing Sales Inched Up In 2023 vs. 2022

Book sales grew just under half a percentage point [0.4%] in 2023 over 2022, to $12.57 billion, according to preliminary data reported last week in Publishers Weekly. The largest increase came in the religious press category, where sales increased 7.8%, to $819.7 million. Adult trade sales dipped 0.3%, to $5.61 billion, while sales in the children’s/young adult category fell 2.6%, to $2.5 billion. Combined sales of adult and children’s/YA books were down 1%. [Publishers Weekly]

Now Available!

Beyond All Doubt

[Reed Bunzel writing as Hilton Reed]

 

“Beyond All Doubt is an edge-of-your-seat fast-moving thrill-ride, kicked off by the reappearance of a dead man and propelling the reader along to the final bullet—and beyond.”— S.J. Rozan, best-selling author of The Mayors of New York

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“Beyond All Doubt is a taut, smart, and emotionally rich thriller. Reed has a sharp eye for character and a screenwriter's feel for action. This tale is sleek as a mink and fast as a bullet.”— T. Jefferson Parker, author of The Rescue

 

“Beyond All Doubt is not a 'who done it,' but a twisty, compelling 'who did what.' Cameron Kane is a sympathetic, yet unrelenting bulldog in his pursuit of the truth about his wife's death. Intriguing and intense, Beyond All Doubt is a winner!”—Matt Coyle, bestselling author of the Rick Cahill crime novels

 

“In this action-packed and engrossing thriller, Reed masterfully balances between a husband’s drive to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and a father’s instinct to protect his family at all costs. Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down!”— Matthew Farrell, bestselling author of The Woman at Number 6

 

“Beyond All Doubt has plenty of thrills—deadly snipers, false identities, shocking deaths—but at its heart, this book is about a grieving single father whose desperation propels the plot like a speeding car with its brake lines cut.”— Cayce Osborne, author of I Know What You Did

 
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