Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith review – a cosy blast from the past
JK Rowling’s engaging duo return for a cold case full of misdirection and simmering emotional tension
Eight Detectives by Alex Pavesi review – a homage to the whodunnit
A detachable fork tine proves fatal, in one of seven golden age-style mysteries that are nested within this metafictional debut novel
Attica Locke: why did my black ancestors never leave Texas? They knew land is power
The crime novelist considers how abuses of property have defined her family’s history, and now shape her fiction
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A murderer investigates herself; sisterly accusations; a criminal barrister grapples with motherhood; and Zaq and Jags are back
Denise Mina: ‘I couldn’t read until I was about nine’
The acclaimed crime author on being a late bloomer, how we decide which victims to care about, and her affinity with Glasgow
Richard Osman: ‘I want to be writing novels for the rest of my life now’
The television presenter and debut author on John le Carré, his favourite crime writers and the funniest book in the English language
A clumsy, cringey crescendo: why A Taste for Death is hard to swallow
PD James’s contempt for the political left and for almost all her characters leads to melodramatic moments in this zippy thriller
‘I prefer a more domestic murder’: the thrilling nastiness of PD James
A Taste for Death opens with the foul discovery of a murdered former Tory minister and a homeless man in a church vestry – and never lets up
Fiction readers have made best leaders in Covid-19 crisis, says Val McDermid
Crime author argues ministers who read only political biographies are limited in vision
Lashings of confusion: why a debut crime writer has found a steamy new audience
Readers eager to buy David Jewell’s gritty novel have been directed to bondage erotica by a US writer with the same name
Reading group: A Taste for Death by PD James is our book for August
James’s acclaimed novel sees detective Adam Dalgliesh embroiled in a secretive and unhappy aristocratic family – please join us as we read
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A pitch-black outback noir; a missing teenager and her devious friends; the return of SJ Watson; and India’s first female detective
Top 10 books about probation
Writers including Jonathan Trigell, Helen Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard have found rich, human stories in the space between prison and the rest of life
Reading group: which PD James novel should we read this month?
James’s novels spanned cosy crime and tough police procedurals as well as an eerie dystopia and an Austen pastiche. To mark her centenary, help choose one
Robin Stevens: ‘We assume writing for adults is the pinnacle, but what book changed your life?’
As her bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series comes to an end, the children’s author talks about cosy crime, gay characters and watching her schoolgirl detectives grow up