Chris Hammer: ‘I am a serial killer. I kill my darlings left, right and centre’
His new novel about to hit bookstores, the bestselling author reflects on Scrublands’ success – and writing by the seat of his pants
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Burning Land by George Alagiah, Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay, Through the Wall by Caroline Corcoran, Joshilyn Jackson’s Never Have I Ever, The Family by Louise Jensen and A Shadow on the Lens by Sam Hurcom
The Third Man review – torn between heaven and hell, a classic noir
Blustering, conceited, charming – Orson Welles is still spellbinding in Carol Reed’s compelling parable of guilt, now rereleased 70 years on
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A boy goes missing amid the racial violence of Texas
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris review – an elegant, post-apocalyptic thriller
A priest investigates a vicar’s untimely death, in a future Britain where reason is banished by dogma
The Second Sleep by Robert Harris review – a ‘genre-bending thriller’
The future Britain looks medieval in Robert Harris’s dystopian tale. But who ruined everything?
Exclusive: John le Carré’s new novel set amid ‘lunatic’ Brexit intrigue
Agent Running in the Field, due out next month, reflects ‘the divisions in Britain, and between Britain and Europe’ – read the extract here
The best recent crime and thrillers – review roundup
The Girl Who Lived Twice by David Lagercrantz; The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell; Take It Back by Kia Abdullah; The Sinner by Martyn Waites; Call Him Mine by Tim MacGabhann and The Case of the Wandering Scholar by Kate Saunders
Platform Seven by Louise Doughty review – a chilling tale of coercive control
Supernatural elements combine with everyday life, as a seemingly perfect boyfriend is revealed to be a cold-blooded manipulator
‘I thought we were the unlucky ones’: the experimental treatment that inspired a murder mystery
Angie Kim’s debut Miracle Creek is a dissection of US healthcare and immigration, wrapped in a courtroom thriller. She talks about her son’s medical crisis, ‘goose fathers’ and Trump’s slurs
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
Hauntings in the Highlands, plus a new Val McDermid
Mick Herron on Newcastle: ‘The only north-east writer I knew was Catherine Cookson’
The thriller author on living above his father’s shop and playing in the back lanes of the city
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A chain of child abductions, a suspicious death by drowning, a cult’s mass suicide
From Uber driving to huge book deal: Adrian McKinty’s life-changing phone call
Despite awards and acclaim for his crime fiction, the impoverished novelist lost his home and was set to quit – then the phone rang
The Body Lies by Jo Baker review – creative writing can be murder
Campus novel satire and the high drama of a thriller combine in a fiendishly readable interrogation of the allure of violent fiction