Muscle by Alan Trotter review – meta pulp fiction
This debut novel from a young Scottish writer takes an oblique approach to a pulp detective yarn
Crime writer Don Winslow challenges Trump to border wall debate
Stephen King seconds call for Fox News head-to-head, offering $10,000 to make it happen
The Wych Elm by Tana French review – a portrait of privilege
A twisty pageturner that considers the bruised relationship between the world and the self
Tana French: ‘Nobody with imagination should commit a crime. You wouldn’t handle the stress’
The author has branched out with the twisty, psychological thriller The Wych Elm. She shares her conversations with a retired detective and why she’s not interested in true crime
Muscle by Alan Trotter review – a new take on noir
As with the best pulp fiction, there’s serious existential heft to this dazzling debut about a pair of toughs marauding around 50s America
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Last by Hanna Jameson; To Kill the Truth by Sam Bourne; The Lost Man by Jane Harper; Flowers Over the Inferno by Ilaria Tuti; The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides; and Fade to Grey by John Lincoln
Second AJ Finn novel on way despite Dan Mallory scandal, says publisher
Revelations that the author of The Woman in the Window lied repeatedly about having cancer have not dissuaded HarperCollins from publishing a followup
Smart goons and a character called _____: the subversive hardboiled crime of Alan Trotter
The novelist explains his experimental approach to the noir detective, focusing on characters traditionally forgotten, even in their down time between jobs
In brief: Born to Be Posthumous; The Chestnut Man; How to Rule the World
A biography of the influential American illustrator Edward Gorey, debut crime fiction from the creator of The Killing, and a comic novel from Tibor Fischer about a documentary film-maker
Slow Motion Ghosts by Jeff Noon review – murder and glam rock
Noon’s foray into crime fiction is a journey into the underworlds of police violence and occult obsession
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley; The Flower Girls by Alice Clark-Platts; Red Snow by Will Dean; Fog Island by Mariette Lindstein; A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon
The Krull House by Georges Simenon review – a dark masterpiece
First published in 1939, this eerily prophetic study of race hatred and mass hysteria in a small French town is vintage Simenon
Turbulence by David Szalay review – stark tales of life in flux
A series of stories arranged around plane journeys creates a close-up portrait of our common humanity
The best recent crime novels – review roundup
Scrublands by Chris Hammer; Slugger by Martin Holmén; Good Samaritans by Will Carver; My Name Is Anna by Lizzy Barber; and Night of Camp David by Fletcher Knebel
Agatha Christie: the case of theatre’s criminal mastermind
The queen of the whodunnit has never gone away, but with John Malkovich playing Poirot and two radical stage adaptations, it’s no mystery why a new generation is falling for her