The Crime Lady: A Change of Season, and WITHOUT CONSENT News
Dear TCL Readers:
It’s September — barely. The combination of work, the High Holidays, family health issues, and the ever-downward slide into authoritarianism hasn’t been conducive to sending out newsletters (what can I say, it’s a lot easier to post without thinking or think and live deeply offline.) But Without Consent will be out in six (!) weeks, and I wanted to share all of the lovely pre-publication notices and reviews that have come in, as well as preliminary information on events.
Let’s get to those event dates first. I’ll be launching the book at Books Are Magic’s Brooklyn Heights branch on Wednesday, November 12 at 7 PM, in conversation with Alex Mar, author of Seventy Times Seven. Alex is a magnificent nonfiction writer (and soon, novelist!) and an early champion of Without Consent, calling it “a rigorously reported story that’s as propulsive as it is haunting. Without Consent cautions us that the fight for justice does not always end with the passage of a just law.”
On Tuesday, November 18 at 6:30 PM, I will be in conversation with the incomparable Sarah Marshall, host and co-founder of the podcast You’re Wrong About, at the Literary Arts Bookstore in Portland, Oregon. More details here.
And on Thursday, November 20 at 7 PM, I will be at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. to talk about the book with the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Molly O’Toole and author of the forthcoming book The Route, which promises to be an essential chronicle of global migration to (and past) the US border. More details here.
I’m really excited for these events and look forward to seeing you there. And if you’d like me to come to your bookstore, academic institution, or town, particularly in 2026, here are the people to contact.
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Every book is a team effort that it’s never clearer than in the delicate dance of soliciting blurbs. I could not be more grateful to Lyz Lenz, Seyward Darby, Lisa Belkin, Roxanna Asgarian, and Alex Mar, all staggeringly talented nonfiction writers and journalists, who read Without Consent early and endorsed it. Here’s what they said, and please buy their books, all of which I adore:
We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian
Genealogy of a Murder by Lisa Belkin
Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby
This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz
Seventy Times Seven by Alex Mar
The pre-publication notices have been awfully nice, too. In its fall books preview, Bustle called Without Consent "a searing, thoroughly researched examination of misogyny in past and present American culture — a particularly important history to understand now, as women’s rights are under attack.” The Boston Globe called the book “sadly timely,” while Town & Country singled out my “signature storytelling and thorough reporting,” and the Chicago Tribune deemed the book “a harrowing study of how a 1978 rape case and its debates over gender reverberate decades later.”
As for the trade magazines, Booklist hailed Without Consent as “a deeply researched, highly readable, and overall excellent work of journalism.” Publishers Weekly called the book “riveting” and “a propulsive legal drama that underscores how difficult it still is to bring rapists to justice.” And Kirkus also liked the book, judging it “a well-argued work of legal journalism that shines light on the darkest corners of married life."
Finally, pre-orders make or break books now more than ever. If you are moved to order Without Consent in advance, in whatever format and through any retailer you choose, all the links are right here — but I must give extra love to Bookshop.org and to Libro.fm because indies rule.
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Closing this dispatch out, here’s what I’ve read, listened to, and watched lately:
It’s not out till November, but Gabriele Tergit’s Effingers, an 800-page epic from 1951 but only translated this year, kept me company during the several days I was visiting with my mother as she began to recover from a pulmonary embolism that landed her in the hospital for over a week. (She’s doing better, but recovery will be slow and steady.)
A new novel by Helen Oyeyemi is always an event and The New New Me was a particular delight. Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor had been on my want list for a while and it totally bowled me over, like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 distilled to its purest essence. Gilbert King’s Bone Valley is out next week and a standout, one you can read if you’ve never listened to the podcast of the same name but of course augmented if you have. (I was very sad to hear this news as well.) And I finally read the most recent novels by Jung Yun (O Beautiful and the forthcoming All The World You Can Hold) and Jennifer Neal (Notes On Her Color), both of whom I befriended at Art Omi in May, and was so struck by the range and depth of the prose and the storytelling.
One Battle After Another is one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s my top choice overall (granted, I’ve become legendarily terrible at keeping up with current cinema, aside from the equally excellent Sinners, but this one I had to see right away.) The way Paul Thomas Anderson jumps off from Vineland to create his own cinematic universe of resistance, family loyalty, and care, mixing abject violence and absurdist comedy, and an ending that felt fully earned, is something I’ll be sitting with — and hopefully rewatching soon.
I also saved The Thursday Murder Club to watch with my mother. Is it as good as the books? No. Was it a case of the cast and crew having a great time that might not have translated into a good movie? Probably. Did I care? Nope, I had a delightful time and it was the perfect movie to watch with her.
Lastly, investigative genetic genealogy solves another infamous unsolved crime. The Yogurt Shop Murders may well be Austin’s equivalent to the Central Park Five story, and I expect an update to the HBO documentary as well.
Here’s to embracing the present, and taking absolutely nothing, and no one, for granted.
Until next time, I remain,
The Crime Lady