‘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

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in August

Authors and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

Richard Osman, Stephen King, Mick Herron and Ann Cleeves return with murder aplenty, espionage antics and terrible secrets in basements

‘He’s my own Dark Knight’: TV’s new sleuth, invented by a Bradford pharmacist

It took Amit Dhand years to create the British Asian detective Harry Virdee. Now he’s coming to the small screen

On my radar: Danny Robins’s cultural highlights

The podcaster and playwright on satanic Scandi rock, low-budget lockdown horror and remodelling Star Wars in Lego with his sons

What to read this autumn: 2023’s biggest new books

Sara Pascoe’s new novel, rare Terry Pratchett, memoirs from Barbra Streisand and Britney Spears, plus the essential reading on today’s hot button topics – all the releases to look out for

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

A surprise post-prom birth, a woman’s struggle to find her missing sister and the gaslighting of a would-be mother are among this month’s mysteries

‘I could have gone to jail’: crime writer MW Craven on a life made up of spontaneous decisions

The author, who won the 2023 Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year for The Botanist, talks about his working-class childhood, his former careers as a soldier and a probation officer – and surviving cancer

Laura Lippman: ‘A lot of novelists choose to comfort the comfortable. I don’t do that’

The acclaimed crime author delivers her most political novel to date about a teen with an unwanted pregnancy

My Men by Victoria Kielland review – inside the mind of a female serial killer

This raw, powerful novel is based on the Norwegian woman whose case has been notorious for more than a century

The best recent crime and thriller writing – review roundup

The past catches up with nine criminals; a carer finds work with a woman accused of murder; and more than one child goes missing

What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in June

Authors, critics and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

Penance by Eliza Clark review – art or porn?

Set in a northern seaside town, this show-stopping second novel is a bravura deconstruction of our voyeuristic love for true crime

The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup

Black River by Nilanjana Roy; Thirty Days of Darkness by Jenny Lund Madsen; Killingly by Katharine Beutner; The End of Us by Olivia Kiernan; The Trial by Rob Rinder

Kala by Colin Walsh review – vanishings, betrayals and friends reunited in rural Ireland

This confidently plotted debut novel from the award-winning short story writer has a strong cast and vivid dialogue