Cookbooks are great, pastry is easy…

What I learned in my year as a restaurant critic stuck at home, by Jay Rayner

Empire of Pain review: the Sacklers, opioids and the sickening of America

Patrick Radden Keefe delivers a damning account of Purdue Pharma, OxyContin and a family that grew rich

White City by Kevin Power review – in the steps of Martin Amis

The story of a disgraced banker’s son, Power’s second novel is part rogue’s confession and part post-Celtic Tiger satire

Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me by John Sutherland review – a poisonous love

In thrall to Larkin’s genius: racism, drink and despair in a generous account of a tortured relationship over four decades

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

The Khan by Saima Mir; Tall Bones by Anna Bailey; Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner; The Girls Are All So Nice Here by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn; and Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka

Ride or Die review – bloody revenge and blossoming love in shocking Japanese thriller

A young woman hits the road with the killer of her abusive husband in Ryūichi Hiroki’s adaptation of cult manga series

Undreamed Shores by Frances Larson review – the heroines of British anthropology

Adventures in Siberia, in the Nile Valley and on Easter Island ... but these female pioneers faced prejudice and tragedy at home

Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams review – a gentle, hopeful story

Based on real events, this tale of the OED’s compilation explores how words take on different meanings for men and women

Love Objects by Emily Maguire review – a compassionate, harrowing portrait of a hoarder

An unflinching rendering of class and familial relationships, Maguire’s seventh novel brings empathy and dignity to a woman ‘half-buried by junk and tat’

In the Thick of It by Alan Duncan review – Johnson is a ‘buffoon’, Gove a ‘freak’

The diaries of the former Tory minister dismiss the PM’s Brexit arguments as ‘puerile junk’, but Britain’s stagnant politics is the real target

Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee review – first love and rising tides

In this coming-of-age story set in a near-future England, a teenager discovers life’s possibilities as climate chaos intensifies

Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal review – a superb, sensitive account

From Proust and Parisian riches to the horror of the Holocaust ... this companion study to The Hare With Amber Eyes is the skilfully told story of a family’s collection of art objects

Into the Labyrinth review – Dustin Hoffman psycho-thriller goes down a rabbit hole

The Hollywood star and Italian veteran Toni Servillo attempt to solve a mysterious abduction – a race hampered by never appearing in the same scene

The Sleeping Beauties by Suzanne O’Sullivan review – 21st century health mysteries

Sleeping sickness, strange behaviour and mass hysteria ... a neurologist makes sense of ‘psychosomatic’ illness

A Lonely Man by Chris Power review – breakdown in Berlin

Power is celebrated for his short stories, and his debut novel, about creative theft and Russian intrigue, is full of fine writing