The 20-page rule: how much time should you give a devastatingly boring book?
Novelist Mark Billingham advises readers to angrily launch a book across the room after 20 non-gripping pages – but almost 40% of people will keep going right to the end
Robert Richardson obituary
Crime writer who drew on his experience as a Fleet Street journalist to colour his thrillers
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead review – a delicious heist novel
The double Pulitzer winner turns to crime with a tale of 1960s New York gangsters, rendered with superbly observed, affectionate, page-turning brio
Richard Osman’s second book is one of the fastest-selling novels since records began
The Pointless presenter’s second crime novel, The Man Who Died Twice, has sold 114,202 copies in its first week on sale
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Dark Remains by William McIlvanney and Ian Rankin; Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty; Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden; The Whistleblower by Robert Peston; and The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi
And then there were two: novel thought to have inspired Agatha Christie gets UK publication
The Invisible Host, a 1930 murder mystery by two US journalists, has remarkable parallels with Christie’s most successful work
The Man Who Died Twice By Richard Osman review – relax and enjoy
The Thursday Murder Club foursome return in a comic crime sequel alert to the realities of old age
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
This month’s crop of crime and suspense fiction includes an engaging tale of government secrets by Robert Peston and a nail-biting new series from Val McDermid
Miss Marple back on the case in stories by Naomi Alderman, Ruth Ware and more
Agatha Christie’s beloved sleuth to return in new authorised collection featuring contemporary writers including Dreda Say Mitchell, Kate Mosse and Val McDermid
On my radar: Paula Hawkins’s cultural highlights
The author of The Girl on the Train on discovering Alison Bechdel, identifying with Physical, and her favourite new crime novel
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
1979 by Val McDermid; A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris; The Turnout by Megan Abbott; Of Fangs and Talons by Nicolas Mathieu; 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard; and These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall
In brief: Writing in the Dark; Dust Off the Bones; Looking for the Durrells – review
Gossip and glamour with the 1940s literati, the return of a magnificent villain and an enchanting trip to Corfu
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Paula Hawkins, Stephen King, Laura Lippman and Joanne Harris return with sublime tales of the unexpected
Mo Hayder obituary
Bestselling author whose fascination with death and violence found expression in the Jack Caffery crime novels
SA Cosby: ‘The holy trinity of southern fiction is race, class and sex’
The bestselling Virginia crime writer on getting his big break, what southern fiction means to him, and setting his next murder mystery right after Trump is elected