The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson; Guilty By Definition by Susie Dent; Sanctuary by Garry Disher; The Examiner by Janice Hallett; Sounds Like a Plan by Pamela Samuels Young and Dwayne Alexander Smith

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig review – a journey of rediscovery

A woman acquires supernatural abilities on Ibiza in this follow-up to The Midnight Library

The Land of Lost Things by Andy Griffiths review – a madcap adventure for young readers

The first in the highly anticipated post-Treehouse series delights in silliness, imagination and problem-solving

Earth to Moon by Moon Unit Zappa review – rock and a hard place

Frank Zappa’s daughter on her wildly inappropriate upbringing and its aftermath

Wife by Charlotte Mendelson review – married to a monster

There are flashes of sharp wit in this furious tale of a toxic relationship between two women, but mostly it roils with raw pain

Survival Is a Promise by Alexis Pauline Gumbs review – a cosmic perspective on Audre Lorde

An innovative biography that recognises the continuing influence of the American poet and activist

Phantom Limb by Chris Kohler review – an unusual debut

This tale of cynicism and miracles in remote Scotland offers a bleakly funny vision of life

Billionaire, Nerd, Saviour, King by Anupreeta Das review – cancel Bill Gates?

An attempt to expose the billionaire founder of Microsoft fails to land a killer blow

Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael by Joy Williams review – brilliantly deadpan

A master of the short story explores mortality and beyond, through these funny, boundlessly intelligent visions of the angel of death

Coraline review – delightfully creepy coming-of-age fantasy offers more than just scares

Henry Selick’s adapted from Neil Gaiman’s book about a young girl who finds new parents with buttons for eyes is a nifty stop-motion animation

My Dear Kabul review – inspirational resilience in an Afghan women’s writing group

The collective diary of 21 women, compiled using WhatsApp messages, is an intimate, courageous chronicle of life as it unfolds under Taliban rule

No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald review – a poignant tale of mothers and daughters

This astute debut novel set on a south London estate charts the impact of trauma and poverty on three generations of Black women

Badenheim 1939; Katerina; The Story of a Life by Aharon Appelfeld review – survivors’ tales full of beauty and pain

Memory and trauma go hand in hand in these two novels and a memoir by the late Israeli writer, who shows that hope can be worse than despair

Rare Singles by Benjamin Myers review – lost souls at a Scarborough soul weekender

A forgotten Chicago singer strikes up an unlikely bond with a Yorkshire supermarket worker in this deceptively simple tale of human connection

The Rich People Have Gone Away by Regina Porter review – ambitious New York lockdown mystery

The playwright turned novelist’s second novel turns on the way that Covid restrictions altered the social order, but its central story gets bogged down with endless diversions