“Michael Mann’s Systemic Evolution: Public Enemies” by Anees Aref

RETROSPECTIVE: “Systemic evolution is a theme Mann explores not only in the historical Public Enemies, but in his prior crime drama Miami Vice (2006), where present-day detectives track drug cartels on a fast moving, transnational scale, and in his subsequent work Blackhat (2015), a cyber-crime thriller where crime has moved beyond the physical and into the digital realm of computer hackers and the global infrastructures they target.”

“The Maltese Falcon Returns, as a Sequel and a Replica of the 1943 Enlisted Edition” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Mystery Writers Grandmaster Max Allan Collins Publishes a Sequel with Hard Case Crime, while Field Notes Offers a Replica of the 1943 Enlisted Issue of Hammett….”

“‘A Scream Pulled Me from Sleep’: Eric Pankey’s The History of the Siege” by Charles Rammelkamp

BOOK REVIEW: “Profound, obscure, and a thorough delight to read for its thought-provoking allusions. And if you think you are lost in the language, pay heed to his gentle reminder….”

“Dead Man’s Wire: The Justice of the Spectacle” by Efe Teksoy

REVIEW: “The silence, however, is theirs alone — something neither the camera nor the system could ever claim….”

“The Endearing and the Enduring: On The Companion Guide to The Godfather Trilogy” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “An incisive look at the films through the lens of a scholar, critic, and fan….”

“On the Mean Streets of Tulsa: FX’s The Lowdown” by Anees Aref

REVIEW: “Lee Raybon calls himself a “truth storian” [p]layed by Ethan Hawke as a cross between Hunter S. Thompson and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe….”

“Guts, Grit, and Glorious Pulp: Edward S. Aarons’ Death in a Lighthouse and Murder Money” by William Blick

BOOK REVIEW: “Aarons’ work is full of many skillful riffs as seen in this pair of rollicking page-burners….”

Preview: “Home Invasion Horrors” by William Blick

ARTICLE PREVIEW: “The last word on this niche genre, with a dense amount of information….”

Preview: “from Build My Gallows High to Out of the Past” by Jeremy Carr

ARTICLE PREVIEW: “If there is a lesson to be learned from noir stories, be they in print or filmed, it is that the past never stays in the past for long, and the inevitably ill-fated future closes in faster than expected…..”