Selected Publications

FICTION AND CREATIVE NONFICTION STORIES

Aries One: “Raking,” 1993; “Awful Words and Awful Thoughts,” 1995

Burst: “Tell-All,” Summer 2007

Cities and Roads: “The Hunters,” Fall 1998

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine:

• “Rearview Mirror,” forthcoming
• “A Voice From the Past,” August 2009
• “An Internal Complaint,” June 2007
• “Murder on the Orient Express,” Dec. 1995

Fiction Weekly: “Here for You,” April 2009

Lifeboat: “Pointing the Finger,” 2003

Lone Wolf Review: “Mrs. Prentiss Goes to Bed,” 1998

The News and Observer:

• “Pictures of an Afternoon,” “The Chameleon” and “Souvenir,” Feb. 18, 2001
• “Of Tides and Time,” March 31, 2002

North American Review: “Visions and Revisions,” Summer 2004, finalist, Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize

One Paycheck Away (anthology, Main Street Rag Press): “The Blanketing Snow,” 2003.

The Rambler: “Shrimp & Grits,” January-February 2009.

So To Speak: “Advanced Formulas,” Summer 2004, second place, fiction contest

Spout: “Out in the Woods,” 1994

Wellspring:

• “A Killing,” 1996
• “Playing Games,” 1994

BOOK REVIEWS AND LITERARY ESSAYS

The Armchair Detective:

• “Tracking Dirt onto the Parlor Rug: The Mystery Novels of Michael Malone,” Summer 1995
• “Bloody Kin: The Southern Mysteries of Margaret Maron,” Winter 1994

The Independent Weekly: book reviews, 2001—2002.

Metro Magazine (contributing editor):

• “MetroBooks” column, 2000—present.
• “The Fine Attitude of Life: Kaye Gibbons Talks About Raised By Hand,” Feb./March 2002 (cover story)
• “A Goodly Crop: North Carolina Offers Fertile Ground for Emerging Writers,” Feb. 2000

Mississippi Quarterly

• “Magical Realism and the Mississippi Delta,” Summer 2004 [Note: Another version of this article is available in full text online at Southern Spaces.]

Mystery Scene:

• “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Great Romantic Crime Movies,” Spring 2009, and “Love Bites: Romantic Crime Films, Part 2,” Summer 2009 (cover story)
• “Heartbreaker: Hannah Berry’s Britten and Brülightly,” Spring 2009
• “Miss Jane Marple: Spinster Sleuth Extraordinaire,” Winter 2009
• “Murder in Black & White: Novels of the Civil Rights Era,” Fall 2008
• “Do the Right Thing: Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird,” Fall 2007
• “Last Laughs: 10 Comic Crime Films,” Spring 2007
• “Visions of Sugar Plums: An Interview with Janet Evanovich,” Holiday 2002 (cover story).

North Carolina Literary Review:

• “A Directory of North Carolina Mystery Writers,” 1995.
• “Sister in Crime: An Interview with Margaret Maron,” Spring 1994

The Oxford American: short book reviews, 1997—2001.

The Strand: short book reviews, 2007-present.

The Washington Post

• “Travel Advisory: Murder Stalks Foreign Lands,” reviews of Cara Black’s Murder in the Latin Quarter and Andrea Camilleri’s August Heat
• “The Boy Who Lived,” a review of John Hart’s The Last Child
• “Spy Vs. Spy: Two Nuclear Iran Thrillers,” reviews of David Ignatius’s The Increment and Rich Lowry & Keith Korman’s Banquo’s Ghosts
• “Mysteries: Nothing Stays Buried Forever, Especially Evidence of Murder,” reviews of Bryan Gruley’s Starvation Lake and Jefferson Bass’s Bones of Betrayal
• “High-Energy Maneuvering,” a review of Peter Schechter’s Pipeline
• “Africa, in the Shadow of Sept. 11,” a review of Richard North Patterson’s Eclipse
• “Checkmate,” a review of Katherine Neville’s The Fire
• “A Broadly Painted Bull’s-Eye on the South,” a review of Stephen Hunter’s Night of Thunder
• “Noir or Not: A Compelling Compilation,” a review of D.C. Noir 2: The Classics, edited by George Pelecanos
• “007’s Double,” a review of David Baldacci’s The Whole Truth
• “Contemporary Masters Offer Unique New Twists on the Classic Whodunit” (Mystery Round-Up), reviews of Nevada Barr’s Winter Study, Peter Abrahams’ Delusion, Jonathan Kellerman’s Compulsion, and Henning Mankell’s The Eye of the Leopard
• “Memento Mori,” a review of Kate Mosse’s Sepulchre
• “Risky Business,” a review of Joe McGinniss Jr.’s The Delivery Man
• “When the Suspect is in the Family” (Mystery Round-Up), reviews of Sophie Hannah’s Little Face, John Hart’s Down River, Iris Johansen’s Pandora’s Box, and Miyuki Miyabe’s The Devil’s Whisper
• Mystery Round-Up, reviews of Tana French’s In the Woods, Raymond Miller’s The Scent of Blood, Peter Pringle’s The Day of the Dandelion, and Mitch Silver’s In Secret Service
• “An Appetite for Suspense,” a review of Patrick Anderson’s The Triumph of the Thriller
• “Mail-Order Ghost,” a review of Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box
• “Shallow Grave,” a review of William Gay’s Twilight
• “Mowgli in Vermont,” a review of Victoria Vinton’s The Jungle Law
• “The Ultimate Makeover,” a review of William Hoffman’s Lies