Gil Scott-Heron obituary
Poet, jazz musician and rap pioneer who used mordant lyrics to express his views on politics and culture
Crime roundup – reviews
The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina, Sympathy for the Devil by Howard Marks, The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler and The Hollow Man by Oliver Harris
Why we all love a Victorian murder
James McCreet: Sexual repression, dark alleys, great detectives, ornate prose. No wonder the 19th century is our template for crime fiction
Top 10 female detectives
Jess McCabe: With Zen axed because of the slew of male detectives cluttering up BBC1, it's time for the ladies to step forward – in the footsteps of these classic female crime-fighters
The Troubled Man: A Kurt Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell – review
The world's most popular fictional detective bows out, gloriously gloomy as ever, writes Brian Oliver
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris – review
Scotland's dynamic new hero Douglas Brodie has already topped the ebook charts. Reading the printed version, Alison Flood can see why
Louie Ramsay obituary
Actor known for her role as Dora, the wife of Inspector Wexford in the popular TV series
New Europe: reading up on Germany’s bestselling books
There's no time for the fripperies of foodie fashion on this week's German bestseller lists, but like their UK counterparts, German fiction readers share a taste for crime
The sound of silence in Larsson land
Boom in Swedish crime fiction has put the country firmly on the tourist trail, and a trip to its most northerly shores gives a rare glimpse of a lost world of solitude and reflection
Radio review: Emerald Noir
The mystery of what's been happening in Irish crime fiction was revealed by a probing documentary
Can Scandinavian crime fiction teach socialism?
Deborah Orr: The British are used to believing that the Scandinavians, especially the Swedes, have social democracy cracked
Dashiell Hammett’s lost works found in Texas
Fifteen unpublished short stories unearthed by Andrew Gulli, who is publishing one in his magazine The Strand
Patti Smith writing detective novel
Singer to follow award-winning memoir with mystery story set in London and inspired by Sherlock Holmes
A new casebook for Sherlock Holmes
Open thread: As Anthony Horowitz gets the nod for a new Holmes novel, what mysteries do you think the detective should tackle?
Trent Reznor to score The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Nine Inch Nails frontman to showcase 'limited skills at stringed instruments' for David Fincher's film of Stieg Larsson novel