The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Whidbey by T Kira Madden; Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan; Killing Me Softly by Christie Watson; The Dangerous Stranger by Simon Mason; Astronaut! by Oana Aristide
Chain of Ideas by Ibram X Kendi review – anatomy of a conspiracy theory
This careful analysis of so-called ‘great replacement theory’ offers a lens through which to view our broken politics
The Barbecue at No 9 by Jennie Godfrey audiobook review – secrets and lies in suburbia
Gemma Whelan and Stephen Mangan are among the cast in this multi-voiced tale of family tensions and trauma, set during the 1985 Live Aid charity concert
The Minstrels by Eva Hornung review – an audacious, confronting epic
The award-winning Australian author is at her most ambitious with this sweeping rural drama, tackling difficult topics with dazzling prose
Midwinter Break review – sad, spiky and brilliantly acted portrait of rupture and rapture
Polly Findlay’s barnstorming drama about interpersonal and religious tumult in late middle age is a triumph, swerving any sense of sentimentalism
A Queer Inheritance by Michael Hall review – the National Trust’s LGBTQ history revealed
It’s recently been accused of turning ‘woke’ – but the institution has been gay since the beginning, argues this deeply researched book
Mare by Emily Haworth-Booth review – profound story of a woman’s love for a horse
Where does it come from, this passion for an animal that isn’t even hers? An astonishing debut delves into deep truths about love, motherhood and care
Almost Life by Kiran Millwood Hargrave review – a will-they-won’t-they queer romance
Two women fall into and out of each other’s lives over decades, in a moving examination of love and choices
When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard review – the Indiana Jones of trees returns
The author of Finding the Mother Tree is back with an inspiring call to the next generation of ecologists
Solidarity by Rowan Williams review – what does it really mean to stand by someone?
The former archbishop delves deep into a word that is easy to use on social media, but hard to follow through on
The Delusions by Jenni Fagan review – an afterlife of queues and bureaucracy
A witty metaphysical satire about what happens when the processes that help souls pass on begin to fail
Howl by Howard Jacobson review – a tragicomic portrait of a Jewish man’s despair
A suburban headteacher navigates antisemitism in Gaza-outraged London in Jacobson’s latest novel
The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Mallaby review – the story of the man who changed the world
A journalist charts the progress of AI pioneer Demis Hassabis from child chess prodigy to Nobel prize winner
Gatz review – the Great Gatsby performed in eight and a half hours of attentive, immersive joy
F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel – read aloud in full, on a stage set as a drab office – finds new life in this utterly transfixing show
The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – review roundup
The Library of Traumatic Memory by Neil Jordan; The Red Winter by Cameron Sullivan; Travel Light by Naomi Mitchison; Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman; Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran