Kenneth Branagh: ‘I want you to smell the steam of the Orient Express’

The actor-director’s latest film, Murder on the Orient Express, boasts a stellar cast, including Branagh himself as Poirot. He discusses magnificent moustaches, moral brooding and the passion of Agatha Christie

The Snowman review – lukewarm serial-killer thriller

Michael Fassbender stars in a disappointing Jo Nesbø adaptation that’s short on subtlety and suspense

Dan Brown’s Origin makes a strong start in UK bookshops

Although not quite the sensation of previous Robert Langdon thrillers, The Da Vinci Code author’s latest mystery sold 100,000 copies in its first week

A Patient Fury by Sarah Ward review – classic police procedural

A maverick cop who just won’t let a case go is catnip for crime lovers in the third DC Connie Childs book

Natalie Portman in first trailer of Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Annihilation

Portman plays a biologist looking for answers to her husband’s strange condition in the hotly anticipated new film from the Ex Machina director

A Legacy of Spies by John le Carré – digested read

John Crace makes some judicious cuts to the master of espionage’s latest confessional

Reviews roundup: A Legacy of Spies; A Life of My Own; and Autumn

What the critics thought of John le Carré’s A Legacy of Spies, Claire Tomalin’s A Life of My Own and Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye by David Lagercrantz – review

Lisbeth Salander is back – can this latest addition to Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series live up to the originals?

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent – review

A 14-year-old wild child, her abusive father and the lush California coastline are the indelible ingredients of a gripping debut novel

Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke review – dead bodies and bigotry

Two killings expose small-town racial tensions for a hard-drinking black Texas ranger in Attica Locke’s elegant thriller

The Limehouse Golem review – lurid but literate Victorian serial-killer melodrama

Bill Nighy plays the detective in this racy, feminist look at pre-Ripper London, cleverly adapted from Peter Ackroyd’s novel by Jane Goldman

Under the Sun by Lottie Moggach – review

A body on the beach promises much in this expat thriller set in Spain, but too much detail spoils the plot

The Snowman: serious film by serious people – or least spooky serial killer thriller ever?

The trailer suggests Michael Fassbender’s Jo Nesbø adaptation is a high-tension, dread-laden thriller with one problem: it’s full of snowmen

Mad by Chloé Esposito review – murder most long-winded

An evil twin assumes her sister’s perfect life in this much hyped debut thriller – if only she wouldn’t talk so much

To Kill the President by Sam Bourne review – has Trump saved the thriller?

Having a sociopath in the White House has helped resurrect a genre that seemed short of ideas, as this all-too-plausible page-turner proves