Crafting Historical Crime Fiction with Melanie Anagnos

In this episode of Slaying the Craft, host Sabrina Thatcher sits down with crime novelist Melanie Anagnos to talk about her debut novel Night Swimming, a late-1970s police procedural centered on Jamie, a patrol officer unexpectedly stepping into investigative work. Melanie shares her winding path to publication, her decision to write outside her usual genre, and how embracing discomfort became part of her creative process. She shares how the idea for the novel arrived unexpectedly while working on a completely different project, what it was like writing from a male point of view, and how extensive research—including immersing herself in crime fiction and detective interviews—helped her build authenticity.