‘No Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition or Mumbo Jumbo’: Dorothy L Sayers and the Detection Club

Sayers, creator of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey, was a founding member of the Detection Club, a secret society for crime writers founded in 1930, and still going today

Taking Maigret’s first case in for questioning

Georges Simenon’s Pietr the Latvian is over-written and features some very discomfiting attitudes – but still holds up under interrogation

Long Bright River by Liz Moore review – startlingly fresh

A novel about a killer targeting sex workers amid America’s opioid crisis offers a memorable portrait of devastation

Nora Roberts: ‘I could fill all the bookstores in all the land’

Her 220 novels – from crime to romance to suspense – have sold 500m copies around the world. Her secret? Early morning Diet Pepsis and an eight-hour day

Reading group: which Georges Simenon book should we read in February?

Adored by writers from André Gide to Muriel Spark, Simenon was astonishingly prolific. Help us choose which of his novels we should read

The best recent thrillers – review roundup

Ageless children and a trio of women taking over a PI firm

Liz Moore: ‘It made a big impression to know early what addiction was’

Long Bright River portrays the blight of addiction in Philadelphia and in a troubled family. The novelist explains how her own experience informed its story

Lee Child letting go of his creation is a tale told by other bestsellers

The Jack Reacher author says he will hand on his character to his brother – following other writers who have surrendered their stories

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha; The Aosawa Murders by Riku Onda; Our Fathers by Rebecca Wait; Long Bright River by Liz Moore; and A Dark Matter by Doug Johnstone

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