Sunday 21 February 2010

What I Read - Crime Fiction

Anybody who knows me knows that I love two genera: Crime Fiction and Science Fiction.

I read for the enjoyment of the pass-time. I love to be flung into worlds I know nothing about and to watch an adventure in that world. In the case of crime fiction, I love the heist; this is the most fun; the lovable smart criminal who hurts no one but gets away with the money.

I also love the grit and violence that comes in drug trade stories. THAT is one scary world buddy! Never mind vampires, monsters or serial killers. Gimme a mean mother fucker with a gun and a pile of coke and my heart will race 'cause I'm scared. I'd piss my pants if I was flung into that kind of world.

In science fiction I love a good vs evil romp with space ships and smart-assery. I usually don't go for aliens, my best SF stories don't have gimmicks like that, just everyday Joe's who are trying to make a living with ships that break down and need fixing. A perfect alien culture, to me, is another world that has been populated with humans that want self-determination and the conflict that comes with that.

Give me gritty crime/science fiction and I'm yours. The best movie to describe that is Blade Runner and the best TV show is Firefly.


Three Crime Websites I Love



For straight ahead detective fiction go to The Thrilling Detective Website. The website is published like a magazine complete with a cool cover. All you have to do is click on a title and it will bring you right to the story. Thrilling Detective is a labour of love and is published infrequently but don't let that stop you, after you've read the current issue you can dive in to the bottomless archive to get your fill of detective fiction.

Under the current cover look for a bunch of links click on the "fiction" link and you'll be sent to a page with every issue laid out, in order of publication. Just scroll down the page and you'll see it all. This guy has been publishing since 1998!



Plots With Guns is another great site, published quarterly also with a bottomless archive. Here is how they describe themselves:




PLOTS WITH GUNS is an online literary journal for noir & transgressive fiction, as long as it has a gun in it somehow, some way.
Minimum Word Count: 2000 // Maximum word count: 10000
No pay, but if accepted, the Editor owes the Author a drink next time he sees him or her.

Cool, eh?



The last one I'll tell you about is the hardest of hard-boiled; Thug Lit. To enter the site you are greeted with brass knuckles (just so you are not confused.)


This is crime fiction - bad guys doing bad things and using bad language. It's like opening a window after a long winter; refreshing!  These stories get right to it in 5000 words or less.

This site is also laid out like a magazine, just click on the title and a PDF pops up. The PDF makes this website easily transportable to an e-reader or just off-line reading on your computer or laptop.

If you like crime fiction these websites are my favorites.

Cheers!