The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen review – wisecracks and weaponry

This catchy revenge thriller, from an established author writing under a pseudonym, is gleefully over-the-top

Yes, he can: Obama debuts as Sherlock Holmesian detective

Along with Watsonian sidekick Joe Biden, the former president has embarked on a crimefighting career in Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

Top 10 books about gangsters

From The Godfather to LA Confidential, these are some of the most compulsive tales of men who live and die in the mob

Thrillers review: The Tall Man; Social Creature; This Is What Happened

A murderous meme, a death foretold and a twisted post-Brexit future – three to spook you

The best recent crime novels – review roundup

This Is What Happened by Mick Herron, The Blood Road by Stuart MacBride, The Quaker by Liam McIlvanney, The Poison Bed by EC Fremantle and A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss

Unusual suspects: the writers diversifying detective fiction

Authors including AA Dhand, Steph Cha and Alex Segura explain how they are broadening the horizons of a traditionally very white genre

In brief: Water Ways, The City Always Wins, A Shot in the Dark – reviews

Jasper Winn on the mood and meaning of Britain’s canals, Omar Robert Hamilton crafts a vivid story about Egypt’s revolution, and Lynne Truss exhibits her mastery of mystery

The President Is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson review – a presidential thriller

There is a sprinkling of psychological authenticity in this bestseller mix

The best recent crime novels – review roundup

Snap by Belinda Bauer; The Old Religion by Martyn Waites; Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh; The Good Son by You-jeong Jeong; Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall and The House Swap by Rebecca Fleet

The best recent thrillers – review roundup

Star of the North by DB John, What We Did by Christobel Kent, Cross Her Heart by Sarah Pinborough, Nightfall Berlin by Jack Grimwood, The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve, Wrong Way Home by Isabelle Grey

Top writers choose their perfect crime

Crime fiction is now the UK’s bestselling genre. So which crime novels should everyone read? We asked the writers who know ...

Observer picture archive: Patricia Highsmith, 27 April 1980

Photographer Lorrie Graham and writer Sally Vincent enjoyed a tense lunch with the notoriously prickly author.

The best recent crime novels – review roundup

The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly; The Hunger by Alma Katsu; Paper Ghosts by Julia Haeberlin; American by Day by Derek B Miller; Body & Soul by John Harvey