Books

When Mandy Matney graduated from journalism school at the University of Kansas in 2012 and her parents asked her to choose a celebratory vacation spot, she picked Hilton Head, South Carolina. During that trip, Matney remembers glancing at the local newspaper and thinking how nice it would be to have a job there. “They’re talking

Thomas the Tank Engine once sang that there were jobs for everyone – jobs a plenty. Over here in our genre, a ‘job’ means something different and indeed there are crimes for everyone in this week’s On the Radar column. We’ve got murder by drowning and murder by arson. We’ve got drug heists and art

HGTV’s “Home Town” creator Erin Napier’s Heirloom Rooms: Soulful Stories of Home, in which she tells stories of her own home renovations alongside anecdotes and home images from a bevy of friends. The book proceeds room by room, from front porch to back porch, with refreshingly unstaged shots of interiors, like an image of vintage

Committed is a spy story cum conspiracy thriller with some psychological noir in the mix, and perhaps this isn’t surprising given the author’s background. The British writer Chris Merritt is a former diplomat, a psychologist specialising in PTSD and works as a cyber security consultant. As well has spanning genres, his new novel begins a

A Toni Morrison Treasury caters to preschoolers and young readers with a collection of eight children’s books that the late Nobel Prize-winning writer wrote with her son, Slade Morrison. Each one is illustrated by an artist chosen by Toni herself; they include Joe Cepeda, Pascal Lemaitre, Giselle Potter, Sean Qualls and Shadra Strickland. As Oprah

RBMedia, one of the world’s top producers of audiobooks, has released a list of the ten bestselling audiobooks of the year. Some of the titles line up with bestsellers in print, like the newest book in Rebecca Yaros’s hit romantasy series The Empyrean. Others, though, seem to have found unique success with this format. Gigi,

Two men, connected by blood but at very different stages of life, are the unbroken thread that runs through Michael Connelly’s latest novel, Resurrection Walk. We’re talking half-brothers Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch and Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, of course. Fans of this author’s books (or the separate Amazon, Freevee and Netflix series that feature them),

Having a group of friends means getting up to hijinks. Even hiding the dead body of a friend and pretending he’s still alive, and therefore eligible to win a Nobel prize, can be a fun group activity, as Noa Yedlin proves in her latest novel—though results may vary. Stockholm begins in Israel, where Avishay has

Addison Rizer is a writer and reader of anything that can be described as weird, sad, or scary. She has an MA in Professional Writing and a BA in English. She writes for Book Riot and Publishers Weekly and is always looking for more ways to gush about the books she loves. Find her published

Is there any better gift for mystery fans than the return of the Christie for Christmas? Of course, Dame Agatha herself can’t be expected to visit from the great beyond with a fresh manuscript in hand but Sophie Hannah has donned her literary Santa suit and delivered the perfect present in Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night.

Michael Cunningham has used three timelines to great effect in his novels Specimen Days and The Hours, his acclaimed homage to Mrs. Dalloway. He does so once again in Day, which follows a Brooklyn family on the same April day over three years: 2019, 2020 and 2021. As Day opens, Isabel and Dan, in early

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone’s love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri – Kansas City. His novel, The Hermes Protocol, was published by Castle Bridge Media in 2023 and the next book in that series is due out in

Translated by Dan Christensen — Italian writer and illustrator Enrico Marini moves further towards the dark side with his latest graphic novel, Noir Burlesque. It’s five years or so since he released Batman: The Dark Prince Charming, and his latest work is an overt homage to the classic 1950s film and pulp fiction era.  It

After five unsuccessful Seasons on the marriage mart, Miss Adelaide Duveen has resigned herself to the notion that she’s destined to remain a spinster forever—a rather dismal prospect, but one that will allow her to concentrate on her darling cats and books. However, when she inadvertently stumbles upon Mr. Gideon Abbott engaged in a clandestine

Recently, Barnes & Noble shared their books for the Best Books of the Year (plural), which included 12 books in a range of genres and age categories. Today, they’ve announced their overall Book of the Year for 2023: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which they describe as a “stunning novel about

Settings can be familiar, like an old friend, but there’s an extra frisson thrown into the mix when a book is rooted in a place that’s unknown. Doesn’t matter whether the location is exotic or more run of the mill, if the author knows their onions it lives and breathes right off the page. So,

Gardening Can Be Murder   Horticultural expert Marta McDowell has explored the links between writers and gardens in previous books about Beatrix Potter, Frances Hodgson Burnett and U.S. presidents. It’s only natural that she’s turned her attention to the ways in which gardens have played a role in mysteries. After all, she says, “In gardens, the

Vicki Delany’s Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas offers a welcome return to the charmingly festive yet murder-stricken town of Rudolph, New York, where Christmas spirit runs high and malice simmers beneath the surface. The sixth instalment in the Year-Round Christmas Mystery series, it’s a seasonal whodunnit with all the trimmings, including a perplexing murder,

Grant Rosenberg’s new crime thriller, second in a trilogy, is the very definition of a book opening in medias res – in the middle of things or, as my writing coach used to say, ‘pot already boiling.’ You are not at a disadvantage if you haven’t read Gideon, the first book, because the author makes

For the third year in a row, we’re running the Crime Fiction Lover Awards, where readers get to nominate and vote on the winners. Based on the nominations we received, below we reveal the shortlists for 2023. It’s time to vote! We’d like to say thank you to everyone who put their favourite books, authors

Where do you want to go today? Because crime fiction will take you anywhere. Shall we head west, with Lee Goldberg’s Western-style police novel, Calico? Or south to New Zealand for Nalini Singh’s new psychological thriller? French author Johana Gustawsson heads north to Sweden in her latest, while Spanish author Javier Castillo dials west again

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

On Wednesday, Oprah Daily announced its list of the best novels that came out in 2023. The list is 10 books long and filled with books of varying genres, from authors both well-known and newer. Here are a few of the best novels of 2023 according to Oprah Daily: Happiness Falls by Angie Kim The

Here’s a heads-up for crime fiction lovers who enjoy tuning in to BBC Four’s subtitled slot at 9pm on Saturdays, which usually features a crime show. This week (Saturday 11 November), the channel is airing the critically acclaimed French film Black Box, or Boîte Noire. Here’s the trailer… [embedded content] The two-hour feature stars Pierre

Publication of a new police procedural featuring Val McDermid’s intrepid Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie is something to get excited about. The streets of Edinburgh have never been so ominous – or empty – as when this story takes place in April 2020, at the height of the COVID epidemic. Authors were of mixed minds

As Christina Wyman’s heartfelt and often heartbreakingly realistic Jawbreaker opens, Maximillia (Max) Plink receives distressing news from her orthodontist. Dr. Watson says Max’s braces aren’t enough to prevent possible future double jaw surgery—it’s time to start wearing headgear known as “the jawbreaker” for 16 hours a day. It’s yet another thing that makes Max, a witty

“Think about this: The Italians didn’t have the tomato until after 1492,” writes chef and food historian Lois Ellen Frank. “The Irish didn’t have the potato.” Let that sink in, then get a copy of Frank’s Seed to Plate, Soil to Sky: Modern Plant-Based Recipes Using Native American Ingredients. Written with Walter Whitewater, the book

Agatha Christie fans, rejoice: Sophie Hannah brings back famed detective Hercule Poirot in the riveting Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night, the latest entry in her authorized reboot of the iconic series.  Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool (Hannah’s own invention) are taking on a new case, this time brought to them by Cynthia Catchpool, Edward’s mother.

Two master strategists go head to head—or nose to nose—in Down the Hole, a wickedly funny picture book written by Scott Slater and illustrated by Adam Ming. As he’s done many times before, Fox positions himself at the edge of the meadow, above a hole in the ground, ready to make his move: “There were bunnies