Alex by Pierre Lemaitre – review
The race is on to rescue a young woman kidnapped by a mysterious assailant in Pierre Lemaitre's gripping, gory thriller, writes Alison Flood
The Infatuations by Javier Marías – review
Javier Marías's haunting murder mystery, embracing all the big questions about life, love and death, is an instant Spanish classic, writes Robert McCrum
The Murder Mile by Paul Collicutt – review
Rachel Cooke enjoys a beautifully illustrated detective story that unfolds alongside the race to break the four-minute mile
Light Shining in the Forest by Paul Torday – review
A comically named serial killer is the least of the problems with Paul Torday's crime thriller, writes Alex Preston
The truth about crime fiction
Realism would be 1,000 pages long and crushingly dull, admits top writer. By John Dugdale
Joaquin Phoenix set to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice
Actor and director will reunite on Los Angeles noir film based on novel by Thomas Pynchon
Jakob Arjouni obituary
German crime writer whose private eye Kemal Kayankaya operated in Frankfurt's seedy underworld
Back from the Dead by Peter Leonard – review
Elmore Leonard's son proves himself a chip off the old block – again, writes Christopher Bray
The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay – review
Malcolm Mackay's remarkably original thriller shines a light on Glasgow's criminal underworld, writes Alison Flood
Harbour Nocturne by Joseph Wambaugh – review
Joseph Wambaugh's fifth book set in the tough, often surreal world of the LAPD is never less than compelling, writes Alison Flood
Reader reviews roundup
Crime stalks the Shetland Islands, while questions of identity are examined through a very different lens in this week's roundup of reader reviews
The Story of My Assassins by Tarun J Tejpal – review
Tarun J Tejpal captures the realities of contemporary Indian life with a journalist's eye in this well-crafted crime novel, writes Jason Burke
Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin – review
Ian Rankin's dinosaur detective returns to run riot in a PC world, writes Alison Flood
Rewind radio: Foreign Bodies; The Martin Beck Series; Mastertapes – review
Mark Lawson's investigation of fictional sleuths explains a lot about the state of Europe today, writes Miranda Sawyer
The Pursued by CS Forester – review
CS Forester's long-lost 1935 revenge story is a little masterpiece, says Anthony Cummins