Books

Is it just us, or is Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series the most underrated set of novels in the business? The characters. The dialogue. The Northern Ireland setting. The author’s deft way of weaving the Troubles into the wider milieu of late stage colonialism. And breathe. Plus, let’s not forget the mysteries. We’re talking about

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

Everyone Here is Lying is the seventh book from the best-selling Canadian author Shari Lapena. As demonstrated in her previous standalone novels like The Couple Next Door and Not a Happy Family, the author is a master at creating suspense and shining a light on complicated family relationships. The fallout from a family spat can

The Heartstopper season two trailer has been released by Netflix and offers the same cozy loveliness that fans came to expect form season one. Nick and Charlie are officially an item — which Charlie happily shouts about early on in the trailer — while Tara and Darcy contend with relationship issues. Meanwhile, Tao and Elle

They say that history has been largely told by men, but over the past few years crime writers have been throwing light on a hidden past, where women have the starring roles on both sides of the law. The Housekeepers by Alex Hay is an excellent case in point. Get ready to be taken away

Back in January we reported on North Sea Connection, which turned out to be one of the most popular crime shows we’ve written about so far this year. If you loved that Irish production, then Clean Sweep might also hold you in its thrall. Arriving on BBC Four with a double bill starting at 9pm

Less than a third of assigned reading in U.S. colleges is written by a woman. But who are the women authors that are being assigned? WordTips analyzed 300,000 English Literature syllabi in U.S. colleges using OpenSyllabus.org to see, and these are the results. While Frankenstein took the top spot on the list, WordTips also analyzed

Many people dream of living in an idyllic place, enjoying comfort and security in a gorgeous new home with all mod cons. But be careful what you wish for… Sarah Hilary’s new standalone paints a grim picture of achieving those goals – because sometimes, there are unknown horrors lurking in the shadow-filled nooks and crannies

Lyndsie Manusos’s fiction has appeared in PANK, SmokeLong Quarterly, and other publications. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has worked in web production and content management. When she’s not nesting among her books and rough drafts, she’s chasing the baby while the dog watches in confused amusement.

When Mrs Joyce Newbury brings her boss, Percy Dvořáček, his morning coffee and warmed up chocolate muffin, it’s not received as positively as usual. Possibly because the British minister for personal information has a large hole in the back of his head and is quite dead. The apparent cause? Death by suicide with an antique

R. Nassor is interested in myth, performance, and pop culture. After embarking on a double major in English and Psychology and a Dance minor at GWU, she graduated with a BA in 2019. She soon began to work in Washington D.C. experiencing the life of a DMV young professional. She has many side projects, some

Translated by Astrid Freuler — Following the Basel Killings and Silver Pebbles, The Murder of Anton Livius is the third novel in the Inspector Peter Hunkeler series by the Swiss playwright and author Hansjörg Schneider. Originally written in the Schweizerdeutsch dialect, the novels give crime fiction lovers a rare chance to step into a part

Series or standalone? Standalone or series? Which do you prefer? The reason we ask is that the winner of our Best Author Editor’s Choice Award 2022, Steve Cavanagh, has announced that his next book is a standalone. Will lovers of his Eddie Flynn series be excited, or will they be wishing for Eddie? Here on

Fans of international bestseller Simon Toyne will know that he deals heavily in mood and atmosphere – the Sanctus and Solomon Creed trilogies confirmed that. Now he’s back with a follow-up to 2022’s Dark Objects, which introduced Dr Loughton Rees. The Clearing sees the return of the National Crime Agency forensics expert, supported by her

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

Author Mark Billingham has been involved in many creative endeavors over the years. In his early days, he worked as an actor and as a stand-up comedian. These days he is known primarily for his successful DI Tom Thorne series along with standalones like Rabbit Hole. In his spare time, Billingham is a member of

The Wheel of Time season 2 trailer has been released by Prime Video. The show, based on Robert Jordan’s series, stars Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoë Robins, Madeleine Madden, and others. It follows a farm boy who finds out that he will make history — for saving or destroying the world — as The Dragon

With the world burning on its axis, you might need a holiday book to cool off with indoors just as much as a beach read for summer 2023. Here at Crime Fiction Lover, we are never short of hot book recommendations and as the schools close and the resorts open, our team has selected seven

Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside

There was a time when kickass – and we mean proper kickass – female protagonists were thin in the ground. No longer. Antony Johnson gave us Lorraine Broughton in the graphic novel Coldest City in 2012, we’ve experienced the quirky-but-extreme violence of Villanelle in Luke Jennings’s Killing Eve stories, then Lex Tyler in Killing It

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

In the 1930s, with war clouds massing, many European Jews immigrated to Cuba, which welcomed them, gave them safe haven, and encouraged their businesses to thrive. Many did very well, reaching the upper middle class. In 1959, Fidel Castro’s communist revolution came and the US-backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista, fled. The Jews’ situation, like that of

The 2023 Hugo Award finalists have been announced. The Hugo Awards— started in 1953 and awarded annually since 1955—are recognized as science fiction’s most prestigious award. The members of Worldcon, The World Science Convention, determine the winners of the award and present it each year. This year’s finalists were chosen from 25,000 works of science

Concerned that your little grey cells may be in need of a tune up? Worried that nefarious criminals could be going unpunished? Plagued by ownership of an armchair from which no deductions have yet been made? Fortunately, you can now put your mind at rest – or to the test – as GT Karber has

Seven women. A man’s head. Who swung the axe that killed Jamie Spellman? Rose Wilding’s debut novel is about the anger of women who are not heard and what happens when they take justice into their own hands. It’s 31 December 1999, the eve of the new millennium. Seven women form a semi-circle around the

A moral dilemma lies at the heart of Conviction. Jack Jordan’s previous book featured a surgeon choosing between saving her family or her patient. And similarly, in this latest novel, a defence lawyer must make a difficult personal choice – throw her latest court case or place herself and her loved ones in jeopardy. There

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is starting its own publishing company: 8th Note Press. It’s already reached out to some authors, mostly self-published romance authors, looking to buy the rights to distribute their books. The appeal for authors looks to be less about the advance and more the marketing services ByteDance offers. One romance

Originally conceived by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in the 1965 novel Rosanna, Martin Beck has evolved to become a detective for the 21st century. His character first migrated from the books to the small screen in 1997, and with season 10 we might see a Beck from the new generation come to the fore.

Two ways to sum up the experience of reading Polly Stewart’s mystery/thriller The Good Ones come immediately to mind. One is: ‘Everyone’s a hero of their own story,’ and narrator Nicola Bennett is fixated on what she sees as her own role in the disappearance – and possible murder – of her best friend Lauren

Retribution is the fifth in Robert McCaw’s series of police procedurals set on the Big Island of Hawai`i that feature Chief Detective Koa Kāne. If you’re in the mood for a visit to Hawai`i, get hold of these books! The atmosphere is thick with tropical sights, smells and sounds. Not for a minute can you