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

Award for thriller without violence against women goes to Jock Serong

Inaugural Staunch prize won by the Australian novelist’s On the Java Ridge, in which a group of surfers tries to rescue a refugee boat from a storm

I agree with Lee Child – compact Tom Cruise isn’t enough of a Reacher

As the author asks readers for advice on a taller actor to replace Cruise, we look at other books miscastings

Agatha Christie webchat with Sophie Hannah – your questions answered on Poirot, writing and grudges

After our reading of Endless Night and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, the author of Hercule Poirot’s authorised new adventures is joining now

Laura Lippman: ‘Hitch-22 taught me that I am a very reluctant atheist’

The crime writer on learning to reread with Lolita, giving up on books and growing up with Dick and Jane

How Agatha Christie hides her plot secrets in plain sight

Her artful misdirection of the reader is one of the key tricks that have wooed readers including TS Eliot

The best recent crime novels – review roundup

Newcomer by Keigo Higashino, Still Lives by Maria Hummel, The Stranger Diaries by Ellie Griffiths, A House of Ghosts by WC Ryan, Five Days of Fog by Anna Freeman and The Long Shadow be Celia Fremlin

Endless Night: Agatha Christie’s favourite still has shock factor

Christie’s 1967 novel is less a ‘whodunnit’ than a ‘who gonna get done’ – so when the body does appear, it is not a surprise

The best recent science fiction, fantasy and horror – reviews roundup

Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri, Sherlock Holmes and the Sussex Sea-Devils by James Lovegrove, The Subjugate by Amanda Bridgeman and The Dark Vault by VE Schwab