The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett; The Second Cut by Louise Welsh; The Maid by Nita Prose; Wahala by Nikki May and Real Easy by Marie Rutkoski
From Bill Clinton to Robert Peston: celebrity crime fiction on trial
After you’ve written your memoir, publishers these days want anyone famous to write crime novels. We put 10 of the most well-known in the dock
Top 10 cosy crime novels
From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, these books are not without seriousness but they are all set in warm and human worlds we might prefer to our own
The best books of 2021, chosen by our guest authors
From piercing studies of colonialism to powerful domestic sagas and all points in between, our panel of writers share their favourite titles of 2021
The Way it is Now by Garry Disher review – provocative whodunnit interrogates small-town misogyny
Disher’s story of a burnt-out cop investigating his mother’s disappearance asks complex questions of its male characters
Five of the best crime and thrillers of 2021
Final novels from John le Carré and Andrea Camilleri, dark psychological debut Girl A and more
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A post-Covid murder mystery, a puzzle in the mountains of India and a fictional take on the spy cops scandal are among this month’s crop
Cain’s Jawbone: how crime novel’s puzzling plot still keeps us guessing
In 87 years, only four readers have solved the fiendish murder mystery devised by former Observer crossword setter Edward Powys Mathers
Diaries and Notebooks by Patricia Highsmith review – sex, booze and cold-blooded murders
These philosophical, sometimes grumpy journals, unearthed after the doyenne of suspense fiction’s death, shine a light on her dual identities, the contempt she felt for other people and her erotic misadventures
Top 10 books about Calcutta
From Jhumpa Lahiri to Amit Chaudhuri, these novels and histories portray a teeming, paradoxical city – and its diaspora – that is a world unto itself
Bed-hopping, martinis and self-loathing: inside Patricia Highsmith’s unpublished diaries
From her carefree 20s and countless affairs, to literary success and later-life bigotry and rancour, the author’s extraordinary diaries reveal a woman determined to chart her own course
Murder Isn’t Easy: The Forensics of Agatha Christie by Carla Valentine review – science and skullduggery
Mortuary technician Valentine reveals how advances in crime-fighting made their way into Christie’s novels
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Hillary Clinton makes her debut with a tightly plotted tale of political intrigue, plus new work by Julia Dahl and astronaut Chris Hadfield
Top 10 true crime novels
Adding an intense layer of meaning to well-known facts, authors including Truman Capote, Kate Summerscale and Gordon Burn raise this genre far above its grubby reputation
Final Inspector Montalbano novel, finished years ago, is published in UK
Andrea Camilleri was determined that his crime series could not be continued by another writer, leaving concluding novel with his publisher long before his death in 2019