Books

Magdalena Herrera has a lot of responsibilities. On top of trying to finish high school, she works a part-time job and is the sole caregiver for her grandmother. Mags has a lot of secrets as well. She’s hooking up with a girl who has a boyfriend. And every night she disappears down a trapdoor in
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Here is our daily round-up of what’s going on in the world of books: Publishers Sue Google over Pirate Sites  I was just having a conversation about a recent survey about audiobook consumption that had a pretty startling statistic: 47% of respondents report getting an audiobook through a file-sharing service or YouTube. And that reminded
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There are some high quality reads on the way and top of our pile this week is the latest from Chris Carter. He’s an author with a huge and dedicated following, and for good reason – the knowledge he built up as a criminal behaviour psychologist goes straight into his books, and you can tell.
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The second Pacific Coast Highway mystery sees the welcome return of proto-detective Adam Zantz. His job as driver on the taxi app Lyft got him into a heap of trouble in The Last Songbird, when he needed to prove his innocence of the murder of his favourite client. In Cinnamon Girl, the reluctant LA private
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We crime fiction lovers know that every day offers a reading opportunity, but June is National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) in Britain – a festival of reading hosted by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) in partnership with The Reading Agency for 2024. The aim is to encourage people to #PickUpAPageTurner. Karen Napier, CEO of The
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Summer is nearly here and as temperatures rise the publishing industry begins to deliver page-turning thrillers for the holiday season. Our news column seems to reflect this – each book this week is a thriller that aims to get you hooked. We start with The Wreckage of Us by English author Dan Malakin, plus we
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Like so many novels in the noir sub-genre, Holy City by Henry Wise reveals the links between its main character’s past and their present predicament, and how, no matter which choices they may make, their fate is almost predetermined. However, what sets it apart from the pack is its lyrical prose, grace and examination of
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As you might have noticed, we review books here on Crime Fiction Lover. A lot of books. Over 2,900, in fact. But that’s not all we do, and it’s always interesting when new things come along that push the boundaries. Lately, we’ve been delving into a new app for iOS and Android called Storiaverse and
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The world of crime fiction is a broad church, featuring everything from snooping grannies in sleepy rural hamlets to blood spattered serial killers, and everything in between. At the darkest end of that spectrum comes Chris Carter, whose Robert Hunter series is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Consequently, as a fan of a good old
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Translated by Louise Rogers Lalaurie — The unconventional short novel French Windows by French author Antoine Laurain proves once again that delving into another person’s psyche is tricky business. You know from the cover that the book is a murder mystery, but what is this murder? When and where does it occur? And when the
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Right, then. Are you ready for our latest weekly tour of the world of crime fiction? It starts and ends in Lancashire, with stops in Florence, the Canadian prairies, the Idaho woods plus a little vintage Hollywood glamour for good measure. It’s a week of ballroom dancing with the latest from Mark Billingham, there are
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Who else but hosts Wendy Stuart and Tym Moss could “spill the tea” on their weekly show “If These Walls Could Talk” live from Pangea Restaurant on the Lower Eastside of NYC, with their unique style of honest, and emotional interviews, sharing the fascinating backstory of celebrities, entertainers, recording artists, writers and artists and bringing their
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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
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Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth Interview with Marlon Brando Biographer, Burt Kearns, Author of  “Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel”. Burt Kearns is an award-winning producer, director, writer, journalist and author who is perhaps best known for his work in nonfiction television and film — most recently as a creator and executive producer of the popular sports
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For over a decade, health care journalist Shefali Luthra has been reporting on reproductive rights for Kaiser Health News and The 19th. In Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America, she details the public and private chaos that commenced when the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in its 2022 decision, Dobbs v.
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Here’s what cooking today at Book Riot: The Most Unhinged Fictional Characters Ever Written But what is unhinged? Let’s picture a door. One with no hinges. It’s detached; it’s hanging by, at best, a thread, and it’s disconnected from the frame that holds it up. Unhinged, to me, implies a disconnect from reality — the
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Some book titles are enigmatic, leaving you puzzling until a clue as to their meaning perhaps appears at an unexpected moment; others make no sense at all, even after you’ve turned the final page. Then there are those that lay it out, pure and simple – and I think you can guess which category Missing
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The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden’s debut novel, is set in 1961 rural Holland. At 30, Isabel is living in the house where she was raised after the death of her father forced the family’s move from the city and into a furnished house their uncle Karel found for them. Isabel lives a circumscribed and
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A child heads outdoors, walking through a verdant and hilly rural landscape, as the sun rises and a shadow appears as the “last hint of night.” Thus begins an evocative exploration of shadows, both literal and metaphorical, in There Was a Shadow, written by Bruce Handy and illustrated by Lisk Feng.  Handy examines the omnipresent,
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Sun, sea, sand and slaughter. What more could a body want from a summer holiday? Well, perhaps a decent all-you-can-eat buffet, a prime pool-side position and a good book to while away the time with. Luckily, Murder Under the Sun has the latter requirement covered in comprehensive style, collecting as it does nine vacation-based short
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In rugby, Australia and New Zealand are sworn enemies. Off the pitch, they have more in common than they care to admit, whether it’s their shared landscapes, culture, troubled histories or love of the great outdoors. When it comes to crime fiction tastes are similar and Craig Sisterson’s second Dark Deeds Down Under anthology underlines
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Has there ever been a more recognisable, more evil villain than Dr Hannibal Lecter? Not many of us will be able to shake the image of Anthony Hopkins’s eyes behind that facial restraint, nor the sound of his terrifying, slithering slurp. I’m also guessing that the popularity of the name Clarice declined sharply after Jodi
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Helen FitzGerald is known primarily for writing gripping thrillers like The Cry (2013), which was adapted for television in 2018. If you have ever had the good fortune to attend a crime fiction festival with her on a panel, you will also be aware of her dark sense of humour. Occasionally, this seeps into her
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It’s been seven years since the last Penn Cage novel from Mississippi author Greg Iles and so our lead book this week is Southern Man – a big deal for lovers of rural noir – and doesn’t its cover come with a unique sense of haunted beauty? Of course, inside all hell will break loose
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Giles Kenworthy is: A) a hedge fund manager, B) belittling to everyone with whom he speaks, C) a supporter of a far right political party, D) rude and antagonistic to all the neighbours on Riverview Close in Richmond on Thames. Oh, and, E) he’s dead. Yes, someone shot him with a crossbow. Now, you might
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“Shabbat is the best day of the week and today is the best best day of all.” So begins Joyful Song, a cheerful contemporary story celebrating Jewish naming traditions, from the award-winning team of Lesléa Newman and Susan Gal.   Zachary, the story’s narrator, is a new big brother—and especially proud to be pushing the carriage
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This originally appeared in our Today in Books daily newsletter, where each day we round up the most interesting stories, news, essays, and other goings on in the world of books and reading. Sign up here if you want to get it. _______________________________________- How Fall Became The Big Season in Book Publishing We got an
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Ah, here we are in May 2024, looking back on 1944 with an elegant European crime novel from Ben Pastor as her excellent Martin Bora series takes the German detective to Salò in search of a painting. We’ve also got the classic mystery approach remixed for the modern age in Ruth Wares latest; a batchelorette-party-of-death
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