MYSTERY BYTES: News and Views around the Internet

I often post individual news items when I see them, but thought I might do a round-up every now and again. Here are several news items and articles that peeked my fancy.

11 MYSTERY NOVELS THAT DON'T START WITH A DEAD GIRL by Charlotte Ahlin in Bustle. 
Readers love dead girls. I mean you, specifically, dear reader, may have no particular preference about the gender or age of any said human remains. But when it comes to murder mysteries and heroic motivations, people love a good dead girl.

CAMPUS NOVELS AND SCHOOL MYSTERIES by Lisa Levy on CrimeReads:
10 Campus Crime Novels, Mysteries, and Thrillers

AGATHA CHRISTIE SHAPED HOW THE WORLD SEES BRITAIN by Chritine Ro in BBC Culture.
The mystery writer is the world’s best-selling novelist and most translated author – so what are non-Brits learning about English people and culture through her stories?

REVENGE NOVELS: BEST READ COLD by Jo Jakeman on CrimeReads
10 Crime Novels Featuring Satisfying Comeuppance, Bloody Vengeance, and Ice-Cold Revenge

DASHIELL HAMMETT'S STRANGE CAREER by Anne Diebel in The Paris Review.
In a 1929 interview with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dashiell Hammett described his first attempts at “breadwinning.”

WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER RECCOMENDS 10 COMPELLING MYSTERY SERIES on Off the Shelf. 
Whenever I recommend a favorite mystery series to another reader, I always advise starting at the beginning. While all good authors improve over time, that initial offering can be so pivotal to a full understanding and appreciation of the development of character and sense of place in later works.

THE NIGHT GERTRUDE STINE MET DASHIELL HAMMETT by Nathan Ward on CrimeReads
Gertrude Stein's Unlikely Obsession with Detective Fiction

6 CRIMINALLY UNDER-APPRECIATED CRIME COMEDIES by Howard Michael Gould on CrimeReads.
A Hollywood Insider Rounds up 6 Films Ready for a Re-Watch

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And, in case you missed this news item:

Novelist who wrote about ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ charged with murdering her husband.

Nancy Crampton Brophy seemed to have a knack for writing about the murder of spouses. The Portland, Ore.-based romance novelist wrote books about relationships that were “wrong” but “never felt so right,” often featuring bare-chested men on the cover. In “The Wrong Cop,” she wrote about a woman who “spent every day of her marriage fantasizing about killing” her husband.