In 2002 a website called Reviewing the Evidence was created by Barbara Franchi to host unbiased, candid reviews of mysteries and thrillers. Over the years, dozens of volunteer reviewers published thousands of reviews of new crime fiction at the site. But websites can’t last forever its code, ancient in internet terms, had grown creaky and unreliable. In 2025 its longtime editor, Yvonne Klein, announced the inevitable: It was time to say goodbye.
Enter Crime Fiction Review.* Though there’s a multitude of places to share reader reviews these days, we thought it was worth continuing the tradition of independent reviewers sharing their considered assessments of new crime fiction through a non-monetized, non-promotional website.
There are innumerable places that promote books and authors. This is not one of them. We are focused on readers. With our limited time and resources, we aim to highlight selected books published through traditional channels that we feel readers may want to know about. While you may not agree with our opinions, we strive to provide enough information so you can decide whether books we review might suit your tastes and be worth your time.
In an era when attention is money, when not only have book reviews vanished from news outlets, but many of the news outlets themselves have disappeared, we feel it’s important for books to find readers through channels that aren’t laden with advertising or thinly-disguised promotional material. Reading books, after all, requires a different kind of attention than the endless scroll and distraction of social media and its addictive clamor. If we can help you find a book to sink into, we’ve done our job.
To reach us, send an email to crime.fiction.review [at] gmail.com.
Note
*There is also a British crime fiction review site, CrimeReview, for many years affiliated with Reviewing the Evidence. We hope that “special relationship” will continue and apologize if our new site’s name creates any confusion.