“Vivid Evocations and Deadly Revelations: Manhattan Death Ballad” by WIlliam Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Jakubowski in the end absolutely triumphs with his rhapsodic prose….”

“Keeping the Flame Alive: Dan Bronson’s Shout at the Devil” by WIlliam Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “A return to these origins is refreshing as compared to many of the contributions to the current state of the crime novel….”

“Shadows in the Sunlight: On the Noir Western” by Anees Aref

REVIEW ESSAY: “Often described as ‘psychological westerns,’ these films eschewed the conventional heroes of the old west for more complicated protagonists, flawed and motivated by darker impulses….”

“Some Mismanaged Business: Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business” by Brian Greene

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: “David and his collaborators deserve credit for taking some detours and tangents that make their book distinctive…. But those pieces aren’t enough to overcome some fatal flaws….”

“Murder, Mayhem, and Music: 120 Murders” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Chock full of beautiful, at times frightening and enchanting, and always iconoclastic tales, featuring heavy-hitting genre authors at the top of their games….”

“The Postwar Noirs of Carol Reed” by Anees Aref

REVIEW ESSAY: “Guilt, betrayal, disillusionment, war – the themes in these films are crafted with the precision of, indeed, a cuckoo clock.”

“An Auteur’s High Points –The Greatest Gangster Movie You’ve Never Seen: Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “A candid and insightful look into Ferrara’s creative process….”

“A New Sensation: Elizabeth Fenwick’s Disturbance on Berry Hill/A Night Run” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Fenwick’s work is unlikely to shock audiences like sensation fiction had done to the Victorians, but the domestic realism and colorful characters are likely to engage the avid mystery aficionado.”

“The City as a Character: Andrew J. Rausch’s The Taking of New York City” by Brian Greene

BOOK REVIEW: “A comprehensive catalogue of NYC-centric crime movies from the 1970s….”

“Round Like a Circle in a Spiral: The Poster Art of Film Noir” by Marlisa Santos

REVIEW ESSAY: “As the movie-viewing public was becoming more comfortable with these kinds of filmic depictions, poster art, never to shy away from marketing hooks, aimed to tantalize prospective audiences with images that promised entrance into a suspenseful world of increasingly commonplace criminality and subversion of systemic stability….”