Books

Once upon a time, we didn’t have cell phones. Emergency Quarters, written by Carlos Matias and illustrated by Gracey Zhang, takes us back to those days, while coming with a perfectly worded note for those young enough to not remember technology-free days. Emergency Quarters follows Ernesto through his first week of going to and from

With Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple, award-winning author Liz Garton Scanlon launches a new chapter book series starring a lovable protagonist “with a whole lot to say.” Eight-year-old Bibsy loves school and learning (especially about science), and she has adored all of her teachers—that is, until third grade, when her teacher is stern Mrs.

Since bringing her award-winning police procedural series featuring DI Marnie Rome to an end, English author Sarah Hilary has turned her attention to writing standalone works, like last year’s Black Thorn which won a five star review on this site. This is a writer who mines the darkest depths of the human psyche to great

Joseph Nightingale, nicknamed Fearless after a moment of heroism during the Bosnian conflict, is a British war photographer who was in Nairobi during the August 1998 attack on the U.S. Embassy. While he was away, his pregnant girlfriend, an award-winning investigative journalist, was killed in an automobile accident. As Praveen Herat’s gripping debut political thriller,

Sometimes, it seems, magnetic north has a pull that is more than just ionic. For Swiss crime fiction author Joachim B Schmidt, this was certainly the case and after falling in love with the place as a teenager he emigrated there in 2007. It’s where he was inspired to write novels and he is the

The broiler is a breed of chicken favoured by the American poultry industry for its flesh. If you’re hatched a broiler, you’re dead meat, and the sense of fatalism hinted at in the title is something that will certainly cast its shadow across the narrative in this new novel from Eli Cranor, a rising star

It’s October 1944 and all is far from well in the Republic of Salò. As the last bastion of Fascism in Italy, the tranquil setting on the shore of Lake Garda belies the turmoil currently engulfing the seat of the German-backed puppet government. As the Italian authorities struggle to cling to power, Partisans fight to

It’s July at the time of writing – the perfect time of year for the Swedish crime show End of Summer to arrive with subtitles on BBC Four. From 9pm on Saturday 6 July, viewers in the UK will be able to enjoy double episodes of the six-part series, which is based on the novel

It’s been five years since we last saw Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, but at last Texan author Joe R Lansdale is back with his unique blend of grit and whimsy. We reckon the series will have gained fans since it was adapted for television, so you might want to tune in. We’ve also got

Rosena Fung’s latest graphic novel, Age 16, explores the complicated relationships between three generations, jumping in time between the experiences of three 16-year-old girls: Roz in Toronto in 2000; her mother, Lydia, in Hong Kong in 1972; and Roz’s grandmother, Mei Laan, in Guangdong in 1954. How did you come up with the narrative structure

Megan Davis’s debut The Messenger in 2023 was a powerful blend of conspiracy thriller and psychological drama. Building on some themes in that novel, the abuse of power and wealth are to the front again in Bay of Thieves – a financial thriller right on the edge. There’s wealth and then there’s the Cote d’Azur

What are your bookstore rituals? For example, where do you go first in a store?I go first to the new in paperback section. I love the feel and heft of a paperback as well as its affordability and convenience. I also love reading staff recommendations, even for books that I’ve read before. It’s always fun

Kellye Garrett began as a crime fiction author with the Detective by Day cosy mysteries about a broke black actress who becomes an amateur detective. Her debut, Hollywood Homicide, won multiple awards for best first novel including the Agatha, Anthony, Lefty and IPPY. It was also named one of BookBub’s Top 100 Crime Novels of All

If you are the sort of person who can’t bear to part with sentimental objects—“That belonged to Mamaw!”—this book is for you. Packed inside The Heirloomist: 100 Heirlooms and the Stories They Tell are photographs and stories of 100 items belonging to everyday as well as famous people, including Gloria Steinem, Rosanne Cash and Gabby

It’s been two years since Dan Malakin‘s thriller The Box kept readers glued to the pages. With his latest crime thriller Malakin conjures up a story reminiscent of Gillian Flynn’s popular Gone Girl, asking the question: “Did the husband do it?” 32-year-old Astrid Webb is missing. The wreckage of her car has been found near

Get ready to fall in love with Max, the irrepressible elementary school narrator of That Always Happens Sometimes. He’s full of energy and enthusiasm that constantly erupts like a volcano. In Kiley Frank’s clever text, Max poses a series of questions that reveal his personality, such as “Have your electric pencil sharpener privileges ever been

Indie bookstore Fabulosa Books — located in San Francisco’s historically queer Castro District — is running a program called “Books Not Bans.” Last May, Fabulosa’s Becka Robbins began raising money for the project, which uses customers’ donations to send LGBTQ+ books to places in the country where they’ve been banned. So far, the books have

Laury Egan’s new novel, Jack & I, is the dark tale of a 16-year-old New Jersey boy growing up in a state of utter confusion. Part of the turmoil around him is environmental and stems from a succession of foster homes with families of varying mixes of sympathy and exploitation. But most of his confusion

Both an art book and a kind of poetic herbarium, An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children defies easy classification. That’s for the benefit of readers, though: Untethered to the conventions of traditional genres, writer Jamaica Kincaid is free to create something brand new, and perusing the pages feels like true discovery. Kincaid’s tone shifts

Here’s your weekend round-up of the most-read stories from Today in Books, with my commentary. Grab your coffee and catch up! The Thriller Writer Outselling James Patterson & John Grisham You’re expecting this to be a story about the latest TikTok romantasy hit, aren’t you? The clock app may be hogging headlines with stories about

Margaret Kingsbury grew up in a house so crammed with books she couldn’t open a closet door without a book stack tumbling, and she’s brought that same decorative energy to her adult life. Margaret has an MA in English with a concentration in writing and has worked as a bookseller and adjunct English professor. She’s

Our new books report this week includes the latest David Raker novel by Tim Weaver, some creepy crawlies that make bodies disappear in the new novel by Tracy Buchanan, plus three indie crime novels that are also worth checking out – two from the US and one from Britain. Continue to discover your next crime

One of the UK’s strongest new crime writing talents returns in July – we can’t wait to see what Joanna Wallace gets up to with The Dead Friend Project. Our new books report also brings you the latest from Sarah Hilary, SB Caves, Johanna Copeland and Luke Deckard, whose stories range from slow burn psychological

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She’s the editor/author of (DON’T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen. View

Arundati Roy has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, which celebrates writers whose work display an “unflinching, unswerving” look at the world. Roy, who was the first Indian writer to win the Booker Prize in 1997, said she was “delighted” to win the award, saying “I wish Harold Pinter were with us today to write

Last year Mark Billingham introduced us to the unpredictable Detective Sergeant Declan Miller in The Last Dance, a book that takes a different tone to the author’s Thorne novels. The Wrong Hands continues Declan’s story along with the mix of genres seen in the first book – part police procedural and part grief manual with

🤖 A new startup from the former co-founders of Scribd aims to help publishers license books to AI companies. 💖 In the mood for a summer fling? Check out these excellent deals on romance ebooks. 🎁 12 gifts for you and your book club buddies. The Best of Book Riot Newsletter Sign up to The

Ah, Helsingør, the ancient Danish town where Hamlet was prince, and it’s the setting too for drama of a different ilk as The Sommerdahl Murders arrives in Britain on Channel 4’s streaming service Walter Presents from Friday 28 June 2024. If you’re a fan of cold, dark Nordic noir crime shows like the recent Jana:

When Daniel Lohr’s and Leah Auerbach’s eyes meet as they wait to board the SS Raffaello, their connection is instant and electric. The year is 1939, and they’ve both booked first-class passage on a weekslong journey from Trieste, Italy, to Shanghai. But while the cruise liner is massive in size and gorgeous in design, its

What’s a girl to do when she works in PR and journalism, but has a secret fascination with the darker side of human nature? Not that celebrity PR doesn’t get to some dark places now and again – but for Tracy Buchanan the answer has been to turn her skill to writing crime novels. Based