Writing is a Crime

Diane Fanning, author of fourteen true crime books and ten mystery novels, blogs about writing, reading, crime and observations of life. Sometimes serious, sometimes irreverent.

No Justice for Ena and Rory Cordt

No Justice for Ena and Rory Cordt

"Awestruck, he clutched his mother's hand, reveling in the dirt and sawdust underfoot, the smell of cotton candy and popcorn in the air and the roar of the crowd and the machinery.  He immersed himself in a wild, wonderful world of four-year-old fantasy....

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Angel Sometimes: A Book Review

Angel Sometimes: A Book Review

Angel Sometimes by Helen Ginger is a fascinating and enjoyable read that tempts you to never set it down for a moment.  The protagonist, Angel, is not really a mermaid but she earns her living from being one before an audience.  Angel's colorful, cheerful,...

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A Cold Case in Oklahoma, Thirteen Years Old Today

A Cold Case in Oklahoma, Thirteen Years Old Today

Bobbie Lynn still fought back, jerking open the door of the truck, determined to escape into the night.  But Sells had a gun.  He shot her in the head and she fell from the truck into the dirt on the side of the lonely road. Now, it was time to clean up the...

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Brooke Henson Missing Since the Fourth of July 1999

Brooke Henson Missing Since the Fourth of July 1999

This Wednesday marks the 13th anniversary of the disappearance of 20-year-old Brooke Leigh Henson.  For all these years, her family has been waiting for answers, living in the impossible, chaotic terrain of the unknown. Known to her friends as Brookey, she lived...

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Let’s Pretend this Never Happened: A Book Review

Let’s Pretend this Never Happened: A Book Review

"I suspect it was because they[my parents] realized there was something wrong with me and believed that growing up in the same small West Texas town that they'd grown up in might change me into a normal person.  This was one of the many things that they were wrong...

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Namaste Beer.  Really, It’s True!

Namaste Beer. Really, It’s True!

Namaste Beer--I swear, y'all, I am not making this up.  It is brewed with coriander, dried orange slices and lemongrass at the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware--the first state in the nation and the first with beer for yogis. Yesterday after yoga...

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New Post on Forbes

I have a post up on Forbes today about the man in Shiner, Texas, who caught a man sexually assaulting his five-year-old daughter.  I have been glad to see that most everyone who commented on the post has indicated that they agree with the decision of the Lavaca...

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Four Years after Caylee Anthony’s Murder

Four Years after Caylee Anthony’s Murder

Over the weekend, we slid past the fourth anniversary of the death of Caylee Marie Anthony.  It remains difficult for me to think about her and incomprehensible to me that she did not receive the justice she so richly deserved. When my book, Mommy's Little Girl, was...

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Another Day–Another Film Crew

Another Day–Another Film Crew

Mike, me and Colin Tuesday marked another first in my writing life--an interview with a crew from Saskatchewan.  All I really knew about that province in Canada was what I learned in elementary school and that wasn't much. I remember the illustrations of grains of...

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Charles Crew, Where Are You?

Charles Crew, Where Are You?

  I suspect that most all of us did something as kids that is a bit shameful.  I imagine that I committed a lot of acts of thoughtlessness that I've completely forgotten.  There is, however, one instance of –abominable behavior that hangs heavy in my heart to...

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