The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson; The Most Difficult Thing by Charlotte Philby; The Chain by Adrian McKinty; The Poison Garden by Alex Marwood; The Reunion by Guillaume Musso and The Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun by Sébastien Japrisot

Andrea Camilleri had a late but great career in crime writing

The author, who has died aged 93, was almost 70 when he took up the genre, but his novels are as rich with serious thinking as with thrilling plots

Andrea Camilleri, beloved creator of Inspector Montalbano, dies aged 93

One of Italy’s most popular authors, Camilleri wrote 23 novels starring his Sicilian detective, selling more than 30m copies around the world

From Uber driving to huge book deal: Adrian McKinty’s life-changing phone call

Despite awards and acclaim for his crime fiction, the impoverished novelist lost his home and was set to quit – then the phone rang

I can’t write about a world without rape – because I don’t live in one

Women read and write crime fiction as a way to understand real experience. I was raped – and being told by the Staunch prize that books like mine are preventing justice is outrageous

Crime writers react with fury to claim their books hinder rape trials

Novelists have condemned the Staunch prize – for thrillers without violence against women – as a ‘gagging order’, after organisers said the genre could bias jurors

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson review – the return of Jackson Brodie

The melancholy private detective is back for a tale of sordid crimes on the Yorkshire coast, with a sprinkle of postmodernism

This Storm by James Ellroy review – Nazis, orgies and Orson Welles

The latest instalment of the writer’s blood-soaked alternative history

Kate Atkinson: ‘I live to entertain. I don’t live to teach or preach or to be political’

After the success of Life After Life and A God in Ruins, the novelist shares why she is enjoying writing more as she gets older – and the return of detective Jackson Brodie

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Those People by Louise Candlish; The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone by Felicity McLean; The Whisper Man by Alex North; Your Truth or Mine? by Trisha Sakhlecha: Joe Country by Mick Herron; and The Winker by Andrew Martin

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson review – Jackson Brodie’s back

Kate Atkinson returns to her wry crime fiction in a dark, sharp tale of exploitation

Anthony Price obituary

Writer of crime fiction and respected reviewer of the genre

James Ellroy says film adaptation of LA Confidential was ‘as deep as a tortilla’

Speaking at Hay festival, the American crime writer has few kind words for film-makers

This Storm by James Ellroy review – a second prequel to the LA Quartet

The great stylist of US crime has a blast in wartime Los Angeles with a charming socialite, a charred body and some stolen gold

James Ellroy on his nervous breakdown, TV adaptations and plans for future books

The demon dog behind LA Confidential, American Tabloid, The Black Dahlia and new thriller This Storm joined us to answer readers’ questions