Books

Following on from The Killing Hills and Shifty’s Boys, Mick Hardin is once again back home in Kentucky. The one-time US Army investigator is now discharged, recently divorced and, despite the familiarity of his hometown, suffering that subtle rootless confusion that affects a man when he goes back to civilian life after 20 years in

To paraphrase the good sis Lizzo: It’s about that time! Time to take stock of books that have come out so far this year that have left an impression. Amazon has joined Barnes & Noble as the latest bookseller to share their list of books that we should all give more attention to. The list

Ashley Audrain’s second book, The Whispers is a suburban domestic thriller that focuses on the lives of four women who are neighbours in an unnamed North American city. Where it takes place isn’t relevant – the focus is on the people and the events tied to this small suburban area. These are people who live

Cormac McCarthy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Road, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, and more, has died at the age of 89. He passed away from natural causes in his Sante Fe home, according to his publisher, Knopf. McCarthy won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his bleak dystopian novel, The Road.

One of our favourite American authors joins us today to talk about humour in fiction, and if you’ve read any of Joe R Lansdale’s books you’ll know that he’s a writer whose work is made all the more appealing by the fact that it makes you laugh. He has an eye for the stranger things

Illinois became the first state in the United States to pass legislation to end book bans. Signed by Governor JB Pritzker June 12, House Bill 2789 takes effect January 1, 2024. Introduced by Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who serves at the State Librarian, the bill received significant support both in the House and

Alan Parks is rapidly setting the benchmark for dark Scottish crime fiction. Last year he won an Edgar with Bobby March Will Live Forever and the McIlvanney Prize for May God Forgive. Now that we’ve arrived in June 2023 and the sixth Harry McCoy has appeared – another murder for the Glasgow detective to solve. It’s

Translated by Howard Curtis — Is there any better means of returning from the dead than appearing in a murder mystery? I expect not, particularly if the murder mystery in question is of the locked room variety. Italian businessman and cookery writer Pellegrino Artusi (1820–1911) certainly seems to be enjoying himself when reimagined as an

Spoiler Warning: This article contains spoilers for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and speculation about the possible ending of The Flash, based on the comic Flashpoint. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was, like its 2018 predecessor, a masterpiece. A breathtaking visual feast, it is a love letter to comics, animation, New York City, Spider-Man, superheroes in general,

This captivating debut mystery novel by Jennifer Milder unwraps the title character’s secrets like a succession of nesting boxes. It demonstrates the truth William Faulkner captured when he said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Janus is a middle-aged woman living in Brooklyn when she receives a phone call that’s like the

Anyone who has read The Blackbird, the previous book in Tim Weaver’s series, will know that its finale left David Raker in a precarious place. As The Last Goodbye begins, the missing persons investigator is thanking his lucky stars that he is still one step ahead of the police, who hate the fact that Raker

If you’ve been on social media over the last week, chances are you’ve seen the Shiny Happy People documentary series trending. Whether you have seen that, ignored that, or did not know about it at all until this moment, this Amazon Prime limited docuseries is a must-view in order to understand the roots of today’s

Lovers of historical crime fiction can get ready for a treat as Ambrose Parry, the time travelling pen name of Chris Brookmyre and his partner Maria Haetzman, serves up an 1853 Edinburgh mystery with echoes of the bodysnatchers Burke and Hare. There seems to be a seam of tartan in our news report this week,

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration announced a list of actions it will take to better protect LGBTQ+ Americans. Among them was a plan to address the rise in books bans, which disproportionately target queer and BIPOC- centered books. An anti-book ban coordinator will be appointed by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on the

German crime drama is returning to Channel 4’s subtitled streaming service Walter Presents with The Marnow Murders, available in the UK as a box set from 16 June 2023. Based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Holger Karsten Schmidt, the mystery is set in the current day but was inspired by shady

Titus Crown is the first black sheriff of Charon County, Virginia. The previous incumbent ran a corrupt, racist department that Crown swore he’d clean up when he took the job. He’s determined that his officers will operate by the book, without fear or favour, and that no-one in his department can be accused of bias.

Last year, I wrote about the conservative group CatholicVote organizing what they called “Hide the Pride,” which encourages people to check out all children’s and teen LGBTQ books in the library, especially on Pride displays, in order to make sure no one else can access them. They’ve now announced the second annual “Hide the Pride”

There’s always a question over whether a senior government figure can hack it when they turn to writing crime. Often, it’s smarter to satisfy the urge by collaborating with established writers as the Clintons have done – Bill with James Patterson on The President’s Daughter and Hillary with Louise Penny to create State of Terror.

We’re almost halfway through 2023, which means booksellers, reviewers, and book lovers of all kinds are taking a moment to celebrate some of the amazing titles released so far this year. Every summer, bookselling titan Barnes & Noble joins the fun by releasing their “Best Books of the Year (So Far)” list. Last year’s list

This week, book banners showed up to the Douglas County Public Library board meeting in Colorado to protest books in the system’s collection. It is not the first time they’ve done it, and it’s also not the first time counter protestors have shown up to push back. None of this is news nor is it

This week, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in conjunction with the Library of Congress announced that NASA’s Europa Clipper will be launching on its mission in October 2024 with “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” The poem, written by Limón, will travel 1.8 billion miles through the galaxy. It will be engraved on

Just like last week, we’re starting our column with a book in the rural noir category and author Chris Offutt has become a favourite in the sub-genre. His third Mick Hardin novel is out on 13 June. We have crime in translation from Switzerland with a Hansjörg Schneider mystery, some Australian pulp thanks to Andrew

When you gaze at the quilted cover of A Flag for Juneteenth, you will want to reach out and touch it. The artwork depicts a girl wearing a fuchsia dress and kerchief standing proudly in front of a flag, the bright colors of her outfit vibrant against the flag’s soft yellows and greens. The girl’s

For some people, the childhood memory of book fairs coming to their school is a fond one, full of precious anticipation and exciting purchases. For others, it’s bittersweet — there was the joy of looking through bright and shiny new books, but there was also that constant, nagging knowledge of not being able to afford

For their entire lives, Penny and Tate have orbited each other reluctantly. Since before Penny and Tate were born, their moms, Lottie and Anna, have been attached at the hip, and this permanent package deal means constant, unwanted proximity for the two daughters. See, Penny and Tate are not friends. They’re also not not friends.

A children’s book titled The Sweet and Sour Animal Book, written by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Elmer W. Brown, has resurfaced in Cleveland, OH and is being given a platform it never had. Hughes and Brown met in the ’30s in Cleveland’s Karma House, the oldest Black theater in the United States. Once their

In Waypoints: My Scottish Journey (8 hours), Scottish actor Sam Heughan, best known for playing Jamie Fraser in the TV series “Outlander,” describes the experience of hiking the West Highland Way, from his journey’s impulsive beginning to its funniest and most painful moments, all the way to its successful end. With disarming asides and humorous

Crossword puzzle fans and passionate readers are a Venn diagram with a lot of overlap. But even the most seasoned Saturday New York Times crossword connoisseur will bump into clues they’re unfamiliar with. So what should you study if you want to be the best of the best? Crossword Solver analyzed 6.3 million newspaper crossword

In the 1980s, Paul Newman began working with screenwriter Stewart Stern to compose an oral history about the actor’s life, from his difficult upbringing to his Hollywood career to his passions for racing and philanthropy. But the project remained incomplete after Newman’s death in 2008—until the arrival of The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man

You might be in a YA low fantasy book if you turn the corner to get to your locker and come upon a daemon. They contain everything odd about high school and literalize it with fantasy. Here is a must-read list of YA low fantasy books for genre lovers and novices alike. Fantasy has a