‘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
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Double-dealing in the murky world of espionage, the hunt for an environmental terrorist, creepy neighbours and the return of an old friend
Crime fiction boom as book sales rocket past 2019 levels
With bookshops still closed in parts of the UK, sales have surpassed last year’s numbers, with 3.8m print books sold in the last week
Lee Child on Jack Reacher: ‘I don’t like him that much’
Author says he takes a hard-hearted approach to character and planned to kill him off
Tips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of them
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The House on Fripp Island by Rebecca Kauffman; Seven Years of Darkness by You-jeong Jeong; The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish; The Devil You Know by Emma Kavanagh; Die for Me by Luke Jennings
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Missing memories and secret lives galore in new titles from Karin Slaughter, Louise Candlish and more
Remain Silent by Susie Steiner review – home is where the hurt is
DI Manon Bradshaw’s domestic life is under strain as she investigates the death of a Lithuanian migrant worker in this entertaining third outing for the formidable Fenland sleuth