Books

Former Reuters journalist Freya Berry made a big splash last year with her exceptional debut thriller, The Dictator’s Wife. Inspired by the lives of women married to powerful men, it became a Between The Covers pick on BBC Two and a critical and commercial success. This gothic story set in the 1930s is a surprising

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

Okay, okay. Maybe I might be a wiseguy or a wazzock – you decide – but the transatlantic partnership between Scottish crime author Denise Mina and the legendary LA detective Philip Marlowe is as surprising as it is exciting. Historic too. The Second Murderer is our lead novel this week, followed by the latest from

Fans have been waiting a long time to hear news about the adaptation of a beloved queer YA novel and it’s finally here. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe will be released nationwide in theaters September 8, 2022. [embedded content][embedded content] Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin

Regular Crime Fiction Lover readers will recall that The Woman in the Library won Best Indie Novel in our 2022 awards. Now Australian publisher Ultimo Press has released After She Wrote him in the UK, a book that was initially published as Crossing the Lines in 2017. This was the author’s first crime novel to

An author never quite knows what we readers will take to and Olivia Kiernan‘s tough, compassionate protagonist DCI Frankie Sheehan of the Dublin Garda has garnered plenty of fans. With The End of Us, the author steps away from Frankie’s four novels of pain and triumph to produce something very different. This standalone feels like

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

We first met Sarah Hilary in 2014, with Someone Else’s Skin – her crime debut, which introduced us to London-based DI Marnie Rome and ended up winning Theakston’s 2015 Crime Novel of the Year. The series eventually ran to six books, but then Hilary turned her attention to standalones, with her first, Fragile, published in 2021. Now

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

Chris Brookmyre and his wife Dr Marisa Haetzman took that old adage of ‘write what you know’ to heart when they came up with The Way of all Flesh, first in a series of historical crime novels set in Victorian Edinburgh. Brookmyre, after all, is a multi-award-winning crime fiction author, while Haetzman has been a

Ireland has an undeniable mystique, and Irish romance novels possess an extra special oomph. The gift of gab? The luck of the Irish? Whatever it is, it makes for good reading. Whether it’s the setting for a contemporary story or a historical saga, Ireland is a place that captures the imagination. I once had a

There are usually two types of people who take a workshop: people who want to improve their technique and people who want to learn a new thing altogether. As someone who enjoys being creative but isn’t exactly that good at creating art, I have discovered that workshops are a great way to find out that

From the Monkeewrench series to Millennium and on to today’s techno thrillers, we love it when new technologies quickly evolve into new kinds of crime and new ways of catching crooks. At the moment, this subgenre seems to be surging forward with crypto currency, the Dark Web and AI inspiring authors everywhere. This week our

Rainbow capitalism is a thing, and we know that this year more than any other, corporate Pride merchandise has experienced backlash thanks to right-wing provocateurs. While it’s disappointing that stores like Target and Kohls have pulled some of their Pride themed goods, they’re corporations. On the one hand, it’s powerful to see major retailers have

Canadian author Robyn Harding is known for her fast-paced domestic thrillers that focus on interpersonal relationships. The Drowning Woman explores the lives of two women who seem very different but who strike up a surprising friendship. It will get you thinking about how far you would go to help a friend, with themes of forgiveness,

Last week’s legislation in Illinois which aims to end book bans in schools and libraries requires those institutions receiving state aid to have the Library Bill of Rights as part of their policies and procedures. But what is the Library Bill of Rights? It is a document celebrating its 70th year of existence in 2023,

Nilima Rao’s debut novel, A Disappearance in Fiji, is a historical mystery that sheds light on the devastating consequences of a British colonial policy that is little discussed today. In so doing, she presents a very different image of Fiji from the tropical paradise and exotic holiday destination the country is now perceived as. Fiji’s

J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic high fantasy The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular and influential book series of the 20th century. A few The Lord of the Rings facts you already know: Peter Jackson’s LOTR film trilogy is one of the most awarded and highest-grossing film series ever. The Lord

Canadian author Christopher Huang’s new crime caper might not have the brutal one-liners of Succession, but it does have an unscrupulous patriarch who takes pleasure in manipulating and pitting his three children against one another – even after his death. April 1921: Sir Lawrence Linwood has been violently bludgeoned to death in his study, presumably

We know that LGBTQ+ books are under fire across the country and they have been specifically targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists in a very organized fashion now for several years. In addition, we have seen public education and teachers come under fire by these same conspiracists who believe that by having LGBTQ+ books in the

Last month, RA Cramblitt released Like Printing Money, a technological crime novel set in Baltimore. It follows his debut novel Probably Lives in Tahiti, described as a rock ’n roll romance, the latter has earned a 4.8-star rating on Goodreads and Amazon. Cramblitt uses the fast-paced crime plot of Like Printing Money as the engine for an exploration of

The place where the lost things go isn’t one of the most frequently-occurring story tropes, but it’s certainly one of the more compelling. In the Wizard of Oz universe, L. Frank Baum created the Valley of Lost Things, a location in Merryland where anything lost in the real world will eventually turn up. Danielle Page

Thriller author James McCrone must have had his crystal ball turned up high back in 2014 when he wrote the first in his four-part series of political thrillers, Faithless Elector. Now we are up to the fourth novel, Bastard Verdict, and it paints another frightening picture of the way electoral politics might devolve in the

It’s been a little over a week since the publication of Elliot Page’s memoir, Pageboy, and the haters have settled in on Goodreads. This isn’t surprising. Page is perhaps the most publicly visible trans celebrity to publish a memoir in recent memory. What’s more, though he does write about his career in Hollywood, the making

Known across Denmark for his best-selling crime novels, Michael Katz Krefeld can now be read in English with the recent translation of Darkness Calls, published in May 2023. The book features Cecilie Mars, a cop who doesn’t always live on the right side of the law. First in a new trilogy, it followed Michael’s hugely

No lengthy introduction this week. Instead, this week is dedicated to a survey to authors: are you seeing an impact on the number and types of school and library visit invitations in this era of censorship? Click this link to fill out the survey. All responses are due July 1, for an anticipated July 14

Translated by Séan Kinsella — The 13th novel in Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series should have some sort of warning on the cover. Advisory: Do Not Read After Eating. The killer in this book uses methods so horrible and heinous that it’s one of the few crime novels I’ve read that has literally turned my stomach.

It’s about the middle of the year — and the middle of Pride Month — and Esquire has blessed us with a roundup of 20 of the best queer books out this year so far. In this list, you’ll find trans memoirs, illuminating nonfiction, poetry, and a variety of genres written by well-known authors as

Considered to be the one to watch in UK fiction thanks to her literary debut, Boy Parts, it’s exciting to see that English author Eliza Clark has turned her compass towards crime fiction. Her second novel, Penance, satirises the ongoing fascination with true crime and… um… fictional true crime, based around podcasts. This leads our

It’s time to pause, take a step back, and review the books we’ve read and enjoyed this year so far. Other booksellers — Amazon and Barnes & Noble — have already shared what they think are the first half of the year’s best books, but the advantage of this list is that it’s the most