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Crime

A black-and-white photo of an interrogation room
Photo by Jonny Clow on Unsplash
It Started with a Phone Call
By Appadurai Muttulingam
First, we were taken to a private room and stripped and searched.
Translated from Tamil by Thila Varghese
MultimediaMultilingual
Time-Travelers, Fisherwomen, and Sleuths: Arabic Young Adult Literature
By Elisabeth Jaquette
While Arabic publishing has historically focused on literature for adults and young children, recent years have seen an increasing number of titles aimed at a young adult readership.
Black Saturday
By Djamila Morani
“Soothsayers tell the truth even when they’re lying.”
Translated from Arabic by Sawad Hussain
Forced Confessions: On True Crime Writing
By Susan Harris
The pieces here map the translation of event into prose—the creation of true crime writing.
The Sixth Victim
By Shōko Egawa
It all began about the time that the men and women were finishing their first drinks.
Translated from Japanese by David Boyd
St. Barbara
By Marek Šindelka, Vojtěch Mašek & Marek Pokorný
It's not your job to solve this case.
Translated from Czech by Julia Sherwood & Peter Sherwood
Multimedia
I Found Out I Was Dead
By João Paulo Cuenca
She’s the one who identified the body with your name, address, and document number.
Translated from Portuguese by Elizabeth Lowe
Factproof
By Jake Raynal
Like most gruesome crimes, the case also reveals something of society's ills.
Translated from French by Edward Gauvin
Multimedia
A black-and-white photo of a severed pine tree.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash..
The Pain of Others
By Miguel Ángel Hernández
Twenty years ago, one Christmas Eve, my best friend killed his sister and threw himself off a cliff.
Translated from Spanish by Anna Milsom
Lusia Murdered
By Cezary Łazarewicz
“Must you put on a fur when someone shouts ‘murder'?
Translated from Polish by Sean Gasper Bye
A picture of a choppy ocean
Photo by John Towner on Unsplash
Massacre in the Pacific: A Personal Account
By Du Qiang
It's not a crime to kill someone on the high seas, you know.
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman & Emily Jones
Hands
By Anwara Syed Haq
The things he could mend! From jewelry to shoe soles, from punctured tires to bent bicycle spokes–he fixed it all.
Translated from Bengali by Shabnam Nadiya
Partners in Crime: Bitter Lemon Press
By Laurence Colchester & François von Hurter
Astonishing as it may seem, we haven’t published any crime novels from Scandinavia.
The Killer’s Monologue
By Umar Timol
Do I feel remorse? Of course not.
Translated from French by David Ball & Nicole Ball
Multilingual
Belle
By Rubem Fonseca
I don’t enjoy popping anybody, but it's my job.
Translated from Portuguese by Clifford E. Landers
Multilingual
False Faces: An Imagined Life of the Wig Gang
By David B. & Hervé Tanquerelle
“Remember that safe I carried off with Adjaj and Bernard and opened at my dad’s?”
Translated by Edward Gauvin
The Shades who Periscope Through Flowers to the Sky
By Sun Yisheng
“If you don’t go home, there’ll be bloodshed.”
Translated from Chinese by Nicky Harman
from “Butterfly Skin”
By Sergey Kuznetsov
It is good to kill in spring.
Translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield
Confession
By Care Santos
Aficionados of morbid details, you will be asking yourselves what method I used.
Translated from Spanish by Megan Berkobien
Multilingual
Defiled Woman
By Washington Cucurto
My two homies from Africa spent the whole damn day lying in bed or drinking mate in the fountained patio of the house.
Translated from Spanish by Gabriel Saxton-Ruiz
from “Horses of God”
By Mahi Binebine
The spurting blood only excited him more.
Translated from French by Lulu Norman
from “Nanga”
By Willy Uribe
I was surprised when he was the first one who came and tried to blackmail me.
Translated from Spanish by Thomas Bunstead
from “You Don’t Know: A Mafia Dictionary”
By Andrea Camilleri
When it comes to adultery, however, sometimes you have to turn a blind eye.
Translated from Italian by Elizabeth Harris