Rosanne Limoncelli

Rosanne Limoncelli is a writer and filmmaker living in Brooklyn. Her short fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Suspense Magazine, and Noir Nation, and her short films have been screened in festivals around the world. Limoncelli also writes plays, screenplays, poetry, games, mysteries, and science fiction and has taught writing and filmmaking for more than three decades at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Her new novel is The Spiral.

Recently I asked Limoncelli about what she was reading. Her reply:

My reading time for leisure gets thin when I’m working on a project, (or more than one project) but I have found that reading is essential in order to keep my brain nimble for my own writing. I vary between books that inspire me for the particular project I am working on, and something completely different to take me away.

Just finished The Foreign Correspondent’s Wife by Jenna Helwig. I was lucky enough to get an early copy of this book; Set in post-WWII Paris, the wife of an American foreign correspondent stumbles on the body of her murdered classmate at culinary school. If a murder mystery can be part escape, this one is! In addition to the murder mystery, it has vivid descriptions of Paris, including the culinary school setting, and most wonderfully, everything the characters eat and drink, pure pleasure to read. I quickly engaged with the main character who is a smart and ambitious woman trying to make it in a world that continually pushes her aside. Very relatable!

Most of my other reading has me embedded in moody research pleasure for New York in the late 70’s and the early 80’s. Lawrence Block’s Mathew Scudder series is perfection for my needs, his gritty world of the late 70s through the 90s are is as noir as I remember and allows me to revel in the details as I continue to write about that time. I also enjoy witnessing Block’s growth as a writer. The story techniques and mystery details develop from first novel, The Sins of the Fathers published in 1976, and we follow the evolution of his writing style as the series continues all the way to 2023. The more of the series I consumed, I realized that the books also serve as a history of New York as well as being great crime fiction.

Visit Rosanne Limoncelli's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Four Queens of Crime.

The Page 69 Test: The Four Queens of Crime.

Q&A with Rosanne Limoncelli.

Writers Read: Rosanne Limoncelli (July 2026).

My Book, The Movie: The Spiral.

The Page 69 Test: The Spiral.

--Marshal Zeringue