They’re playing our book

The simple bit was writing a thriller with her husband. The complications began when Hollywood came calling, using Joseph Fiennes and Heather Graham as the bait...

The long goodnight

Chris Petit reads the mournful, insomniac letters in The Raymond Chandler Papers

Fear and loathing

Figures out this week show that while Britain's crime rate is falling, women's anxiety is rising. Crime writer Val McDermid knows why

Patricia Moyes

A New York Times book reviewer once noted that the detective writer Patricia Moyes, who has died aged 77, "made drug dealing look like bad manners rather than bad morals".

The long shadow of the Falcon

Dashiell Hammett's creation Sam Spade is father to every gumshoe that ever walked down a mean street, says crime-writer Sara Paretsky

The talented Ms Highsmith

Her heroes are deviants and genial psychopaths. No wonder film-makers from Alfred Hitchcock to Anthony Minghella have adapted her novels. Robert Shore on the enduring appeal of Patricia Highsmith