A Detective's Case for Christ

by Mark Bauerlein

 J. Warner Wallace joins the podcast to discuss his book, Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible.  Continue Reading »

31 Jan 2022

What We’ve Been Reading—January 2022

by Editors

Our editors reflect on Eugene Vodolazkin, detective fiction, Jonathan Franzen, Toshikazu Kawaguchi, and Flannery O’Connor. Continue Reading »

27 Jan 2022

Serial Thinking

by John Wilson

A series appeals to us in part because it combines, in an artful and concentrated way, the combination of the predictable and the unpredictable at the very heart of our lives. Continue Reading »

22 Oct 2021

He Stands Apart

by Mark Bauerlein

The Ross Macdonald Collection: 11 Classic Lew Archer Novelsby ross macdonaldedited by tom nolanlibrary of america, 3 volumes, 2618 pages, $112.50 Near the end of Find a Victim, Ross Macdonald’s 1954 novel of murder and hijacking in a small California town, private eye Lew Archer suggests to . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Apr 2018

Cowboys, Robots, and Private Eyes

by The Editors

The First Things Podcast, Episode 15. Featuring: Hardboiled detective novels and HBO’s Westworld.
Continue Reading »

4 Nov 2016

Bayou Noir

by Richard T. Whittington

“I believe they make a conscious choice to erase God's thumbprint from their souls.” Continue Reading »

2 Jun 2016

The Christian World of Agatha Christie

by Nick Baldock

In 1971, a group of British notables, both Catholic and non-Catholic, petitioned for the retention of the Tridentine Rite in England and Wales. As the story goes, Pope Paul VI read the petition and, arriving at the name of Agatha Christie, shrugged and agreed to the request. Such are the mysterious workings of providence, as manifested in the field of cultural history. The ‘Agatha Christie Indult’ may be the only occasion of a detective novelist influencing Vatican policy, although, given the popularity of the genre, it may not… . Continue Reading »

4 Aug 2009