True Crime

THE LONDON MONSTER In 1790, nearly a century before Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London, another predator held sway. The Monster, as this mysterious miscreant was soon dubbed, used to walk up to […]

Why I Love New York! As I write this, New York City and most our country are shut down under social isolation orders, a safety measure for the entire population. But I believe that we’ll […]

From Spy Sites of New York: Secrets of Seven New York Landmarks Planning a trip to New York? Flying to JFK? Taking the train to Grand Central Terminal? Going to the Statute of Liberty? Visiting […]

Joseph Stalin is quoted as saying, “The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of millions is a statistic.”  Today he might say, “The death of one Iranian General sucks up the headlines, […]

In their newly released book, Spy Sites of New York; A Guide to the Region’s Secret History, intelligence historians H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace  with Hnry Schlesinger document the tradecraft used by Anna Chapman and […]

Is True Crime Good for You? I never gave much thought to true crime until I began working on my new true crime anthology series. Suddenly it occurred to me that I’d been a consumer […]

Top Five Creepiest Serial Killers I’m not a serial killer groupie, but I definitely enjoy a good, twisted story of evil. I often say that if I’d known myself better in college (read: hadn’t been […]

Top Ten Literary Spies Movies depict spies and writers idling around disreputable gin joints in disheveled trench coats or sporting tuxedos and tossing quips between martinis. Implausibly, practitioners of writing and espionage not only share […]

WASHINGTON’S TOP TEN SPY  SITES…Plus ONE Espionage’s most sensitive secrets are often hidden in plain sight. A white chalk mark on a mailbox, a construction worker’s discarded dirty glove, an unattended garbage bag, even a […]

We’re Having a Collision here! How True Crime and Fiction Intersect In preparing to teach a class next semester on popular fiction—including science fiction, mysteries, horror, thrillers, and fantasy—I’m learning and thinking a lot about […]