Perfect escapism: why cosy crime stories are a Christmas essential
From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, playful, quirky mysteries are particularly appealing at this time of year
Five years and 2m copies later, self-published author lands UK book deal
Norfolk-based crime writer JM Dalgliesh topped the Amazon and Kindle bestsellers before being signed by a traditional publisher
Best crime and thrillers of 2023
A splendidly tricksy locked-room mystery, a fortune teller in Georgian high society and Indian mobsters make this year’s list
Alison Flood’s best crime novels and thrillers of 2023
Seasonal scares starring Stephen King’s detective Holly Gibney, plus Terry Hayes’s follow-up to I Am Pilgrim and Catriona Ward’s terrifying Daggerman
The Mystery of Mr E review – Sophie Hannah’s quirky musical murder mystery
Adapted from a school play by crime writer Hannah, this low-budget British whodunnit lacks the cinematic flair to match its clever songs and plotting
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes; The First 48 Hours by Simon Kernick; The Unspeakable Acts of Zina Pavlou by Eleni Kyriacou; The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok; Gaslight by Femi Kayode
Dagger awards adds categories for ‘cosy crime’ and psychological thrillers
The annual Crime Writers’ Association awards wanted to acknowledge the changing tastes of readers ‘looking for the next thrill, the next murderous innovation’
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Hallett; West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman; Mrs Sidhu’s Dead and Scone by Suk Pannu; Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming; The North Light by Hideo Yokoyama
Sweden’s ‘queen of Noir’ Camilla Läckberg accused of using a ghostwriter
Crime novelist has been forced to deny claims that she tricked readers into buying books she didn’t write herself
The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup
JK Rowling, as Robert Galbraith, is back with a cult classic, while elsewhere past crimes make for gripping reads
The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith review – a riveting race against time
JK Rowling’s will they/won’t they detective duo return in a hefty but immersive tale of an attempted rescue from a cult
Agatha Christie statue takes seat on bench in Oxfordshire town
Memorial by Ben Twiston-Davies is sited in Wallingford, where the mystery writer lived for more than 40 years
Richard Osman: ‘I would have been terrible in MI6. I’m too tall, spill secrets and can’t lie’
After getting ‘the tap’ at Cambridge, he went from a behind-the-scenes TV ideas man to a fixture in front of the camera. Then the Pointless star’s Thursday Murder Club books became the biggest thing in fiction since Harry Potter
‘Healthy or downright weird?’: how I helped publish my husband Christopher Fowler’s posthumous book
My author spouse never let me read anything he wrote before it was finished. But after his death from cancer, I found myself choosing funeral flowers at the same time as covers for his memoir, Word Monkey
‘It’s time the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo grew up’: Karin Smirnoff on her shocking sequel
The Swede is the first woman to write a Lisbeth Salander novel. She explains what men don’t get about sexual violence, why she introduced a genius niece – and how writing beats chopping wood for a living