The 75 hottest books of 2024 so far
From cosy crime to moving memoirs, our critics pick the perfect holiday reading, whatever your tastes
From cosy crime to moving memoirs, our critics pick the perfect holiday reading, whatever your tastes
Of about 100 books submitted by publishers to be selected for the 18-writer longlist, just 7 per cent were by authors of colour
The novelist, who has died aged 77, reinvented the genre with The New York Trilogy. It has never been beaten
CJ Sansom’s Shardlake books sought to recreate a lost world, not impose our values on our history
Alibi’s latest crime thriller is set on a fictional Welsh island, where the locals follow a pagan belief system
Craving more wrongdoing in a sleepy setting? Then pop the kettle on and let the crime-solving begin
Netflix’s Ripley is the latest drama to show our fascination with Patricia Highsmith’s murderer – a creation with whom she was infatuated
As Andrew Scott takes on Patricia Highsmith’s Tom Ripley for Netflix, we recommend the finest small-screen dramatisations from the archive
One of the finest thriller novelists on how he would tackle crime in America – and why he’s quitting books to fight Trump
Angela Marsons has sold millions of digital copies and her tales from the Black Country are now coming to the BBC
Britons love a bucolic crime drama, but this new offering from Robert Thorogood (Death in Paradise) feels too leisurely for its own good
Helen Garner is one of the greatest living writers Down Under. At last her brooding, sensual, smartly-written books have reached the UK
The actress discusses on-screen nudity, the curse of 007 and why she hates ‘female-led’ films
The Ukrainian author of Death and the Penguin launches a fast-moving new crime trilogy with The Silver Bone
His books entrenched the picture of English men and women in the colonies as snobbish, petty and prone to scandal
Previous BBC adaptations murdered her meticulous plots. But this year’s Murder is Easy stays true to the dark, subversive heart of her work
The Sherlock Holmes creator is lesser known for his chilling tales of the supernatural and belief in psychic phenomena
This year saw a bumper crop of historical fiction, some traditional whodunits and more than one big-ticket novel that badly needed an editor
Patricia Cornwell says she can point out 'things that can kill you everywhere' and she always has her radar going
The American author on trying to trace Jack the Ripper, her best scoop as a reporter and finding her personal life in the spotlight
Never mind the A-list – this year’s best books came from unsung names, indie presses and odd archival depths. Read on for the highlights…
The Consultant, Im Seong-sun’s debut, is a coolly cerebral crime novel about writing crime novels, yet one editorial lapse is blatant
Deadly Game, the debut thriller by the veteran actor, is surprisingly excellent, with an old-school hero and a plot rich in twists and turns