Top 10 books about trouble in Los Angeles
Novelist Steph Cha chooses books that reflect the tensions and flashpoints of her diverse, uncontainable home town
Jo Nesbø: ‘We should talk about violence against women’
The Norwegian author of the Harry Hole detective series on Tom Jones and his soft spot for a crime cliche
Don Winslow and Stephen King offer $200K if White House holds a press briefing
Writers promise charity donations if press secretary agrees to ‘do her job’ and field journalists’ questions after 300-day hiatus
MC Beaton obituary
Crime fiction writer who created the detectives Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin
MC Beaton, multimillion-selling author of Agatha Raisin novels, dies aged 83
Scottish writer, who also created detective Hamish Macbeth, did not take kindly to her ‘cosy crime’ reputation
The best recent crime novels – review roundup
Silver by Chris Hammer, A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh, Beyond Recall by Gerald Seymour, The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly and The Lammisters by Declan Burke
‘I exposed the dirty laundry of gay life’: The Lure, the thriller that shocked America
Felice Picano’s controversial story of a serial killer in New York was a huge hit in 1979 – but may also have provoked an armed attack on his home. Forty years on, he talks about his novel
Top 10 dinner parties in fiction
From Arthurian feasts to awkward moments with Ian McEwan and mealtime at the Macbeths, these miniature dramas are literary staples. Tuck in
Best crime and thrillers of 2019
Middle-aged women took charge, Jackson Brodie returned and new novels from John le Carré, Tana French and Don Winslow: Laura Wilson picks the best of a bumper year
The best recent crime novels – review roundup
The Sound of Her Voice by Nathan Blackwell, Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver, The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis, Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee, The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo
Top 10 golden age detective novels
For some, ‘cosy crime’ of the 1920s and 30s is class-ridden and formulaic – but classic authors such as Agatha Christie and Josephine Tey paved the way for modern fiction as we know it
Diaries expose ‘strong brew’ of Ripley novelist Patricia Highsmith’s dark thoughts
Controversial views of the late American writer to be revealed by publication of her private notebooks
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre; The Choke by Sofie Laguna; This Little Dark Place by AS Hatch; The Long Call by Ann Cleeves; and Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen
Anna Krien, Charlotte Wood, Chris Hammer and others on what they’re reading in October
Plus, Elliot Perlman’s tour through dark humour, Kate McClymont’s jaw-dropping true crime and Heather Rose’s alarming visions of the future
Bodies in left luggage: Peter James on Brighton’s grisly past
The crime writer on his love for the city by the sea that was known as ‘the murder capital of Europe’