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
Crime novelist Mo Hayder dies aged 59 from motor neurone disease
Clare Dunkel, who was diagnosed only months ago, wrote 10 thrillers under the pen name and has been remembered as a ‘ferociously inventive’ presence
Bryant & May author Christopher Fowler: ‘Writing the end was really emotional’
After 20 outings, the unconventional detective duo of Arthur Bryant and John May have solved their last case. But their creator is not willing to let them go entirely …
This month’s best paperbacks: Mary Trump on ‘Uncle Donald’, a new Elena Ferrante and more
Here are some excellent new paperbacks for July, including Too Much and Never Enough, outstanding translated novels and some fizzing fantasy
The Newcomer by Laura Elizabeth Woollett review – murder in a Pacific island paradise
New novel from the author of Beautiful Revolutionary takes aim at far more than the ‘dead girl’ crime genre trope
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker; The Good Neighbours by Nina Allan; The Maidens by Alex Michaelides; True Crime Story by Joseph Knox; and Lucky by Rachel Edwards
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
Sixteen Horses by Greg Buchanan; One Half Truth by Eva Dolan; The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury; Love and Theft by Stan Parish; and Silenced by Sólveig Pálsdóttir
Honkaku: a century of the Japanese whodunnits keeping readers guessing
These fiendishly clever mystery novels have spawned pop culture icons, anime and a museum. And, best of all, honkaku plays fair – you have the clues to solve the crime
‘Bill and I got pretty friendly’: James Patterson on writing with Clinton and clashing with Trump
His plot-driven thrillers have seen him sell more books than Tolkien, and he has even co-written fiction with the former president. But it’s readers of the future he wants to enthral
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
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Mystery unravels layer by layer in intricate tales of trafficking, abduction and a New Yorker with a sixth sense – plus, a 27th outing for Alan Banks
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The House Uptown by Melissa Ginsburg; My Brother by Karin Smirnoff; Dangerous Women by Hope Adams; A Fine Madness by Alan Judd; Lie Beside Me by Gytha Lodge; and A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes
Jessie Greengrass: ‘Frog and Toad Are Friends contains one of the best jokes ever written’
The author on underrated ‘great of feminist literature’ Gaudy Night, looking forward to every Ian Rankin novel, and never finishing Middlemarch
From Line of Duty to The Fall: why can’t TV shows stop killing women?
Extreme violence against women seems to have become a staple of TV crime shows. Writers and producers reveal what’s behind the high female body count – and what needs to change
Val McDermid: ‘To survive, you had to be twice as good as the guys’
The Scottish crime writer on working in a newsroom in the 70s, coping with lockdown and the transformation of attitudes to gay couples in her home nation