Ruth Rendell: From the archive
Ruth Rendell interviews from the Guardian and Observer archive
The 100 best novels: No 84 – In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (1966)
Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, a true story of bloody murder in rural Kansas, opens a window on the dark underbelly of postwar America
Orient review – death follows a drifter in Christopher Bollen’s classy thriller
A tight-knit Long Island community under siege is the setting for an intelligent page-turner
The Girl on the Train – and other express encounters in literature
Moira Redmond takes a journey through her favourite fiction written to the rhythm of the rails. Which train scenes make your heart beat faster?
Why don’t we care about the Hatton Garden heist victims?
There is something missing from this image of a hole in a safe deposit wall: empathy. Our outrage at unfettered wealth is the same emotion that hinders the Tories
On my radar: Attica Locke’s cultural highlights
The crime writer on what makes an artist, the difficulty of finding good BBQ outside Texas and her fascination with how LA’s Scientologists
Thrillers are politically conservative? That’s not right
Val McDermid says that while crime fiction is naturally of the left, thrillers are on the side of the status quo. Jonathan Freedland votes against this reading
Why crime fiction is leftwing and thrillers are rightwing
Today’s crime novels are overtly critical of the status quo, while the thriller explores the danger of the world turned upside down. And with trust in politicians nonexistent, writers are being listened to as rarely before
Fantasy worlds made real by readers
Unlike Rebus or Morse (or my last novel), Sophie Hannah sets her detective fiction in an invented county to avoid over-familiarity. But the strategy is not infallible
Library users firmly focused on fiction
The UK’s most borrowed titles reveal a thirst for thrillers, crime novels and children’s fiction, with Jamie Oliver the only non-fiction title among the top 100
Ian Rankin’s Rebus to make another comeback
Will the dogged cop ever get a chance to enjoy his retirement?
Curtain Call review – Anthony Quinn’s witty crime romp
The new Ripper is on the loose in 30s London in this engaging murder mystery, writes Viv Groskop
The 88 movies we’re most excited about in 2015
Think 2014 was a good year for film? Think again. This year is shaping up to be one of the classics. Here’s what’s on our radar
Potted Sherlock review – the whole Holmes is a little too elementary
It’s hard to see the joke in this ridiculous comedy if you know nothing of Conan Doyle’s many original stories, writes Lyn Gardner
Reading group: Why The Maltese Falcon is built to last
Sam Jordison: The powerful prose and plot, the morality and the smouldering Spade … There are many reasons why Dashiell Hammett’s detective novel is such a classic