Adam Diment, the superstar spy novelist who vanished for four decades

Once a million-selling man about town, he has cultivated obscurity for many years. But that may be set to change as his books are readied for republication

Quieter Than Killing review – vivid and eerie

Sarah Hilary’s fourth DI Marnie Rome novel digs deep into the detective’s past, wrapping the story in effortless prose

My Sister’s Bones by Nuala Ellwood review – dark and punchy

A war reporter heads home to Herne Bay, but is haunted by Aleppo and childhood abuse

SS-GB’s dystopian parallel universe – a drama for our time

The BBC TV adaptation of Len Deighton’s novel about a Nazi-occupied Britain forces viewers to wonder: would we resist?

The Girl on the Train: the UK’s favourite library book in 2015-16

Northern Ireland borrowed the Guinness World Records, Wales and Scotland thrillers by Lee Child and Paula Hawkins, while Londoners crammed for their driving test

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough review – fantastically creepy

Pinborough’s twisty psychological thriller culminates with a plot twist worthy of the publisher’s #WTFthatending hashtag

Little Deaths by Emma Flint review – murderer or good-time girl?

Guilt, loneliness and trial by tabloid are explored in this fascinating debut based on the killing of two children in New York

Hidden gems of 2016: the best books you may have missed

From AJ Lees’s extraordinary memoir Mentored By a Madman to Fiona Melrose’s Midwinter and Julie Myerson’s chiller The Stopped Heart, our critics recommend the reads that slipped under the radar

The 50 best films of 2016 in the US: No 9 The Handmaiden

As our countdown moves into the final fortnight, Peter Bradshaw welcomes a dazzling and sexy adaptation of Sarah Waters’s story about lesbian love

Arrival lands in top spot at UK box office, but no space for American Pastoral

Denis Villeneuve’s smart sci-fi epic starring Amy Adams soars, as Ewan McGregor’s Philip Roth adaptation stumbles

The Chemist by Stephenie Meyer review – no pain, no gain

A mysterious interrogator accepts one final job for her former employer in the Twilight novelist’s pacy adult thriller

The Accountant adds up to a big deal at the UK box office

Ben Affleck action thriller tames A Street Cat Named Bob and Nocturnal Animals as Doctor Strange hangs on to the top spot

After The Maltese Falcon: how film noir took flight

Ushering in an uneasy world of femmes fatales and shady sleuths, The Maltese Falcon marked the beginnings of film noir. Seventy-five years on, how can this genre speak to our times?

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back review – pecs, punchups and popcorn galore

Tom Cruise rattles through every trope in the book as the vigilante ex-soldier, this time fleeing corrupt bosses in a high-octane sequel that revels in its absurdity

Horror in the outback: Jane Harper, Charlotte Wood and the landscape of fear

From Hanging Rock to Bitter Wash Road, the Australian bush has long provided writers with a backdrop of terror. A new wave of crime fiction is taking it up a notch