Books

Right? I mean, who knew? Could playgroup noir become a thing? We like to stay ahead of the curve but English author Katherine Faulkner might soon be appearing on literary festival panels around the world discussing this new corner of crime fiction. Her novel The Other Mothers made quite a splash on its Kindle and

Have you voted in the Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2023 yet? If not, perhaps today’s the day to make your picks. Here we look at the six books on our Book of the Year shortlist and one of the comments we keep hearing is: “It’s so hard to choose…” That’s because they’re all fantastic and

The Crime Fiction Lover Awards 2023 are underway and as a reader you’re invited to vote on which books will win the accolades this year. Here we look at the six novels nominated by readers for our Best Debut shortlist. For all the shortlists, and for information on voting, follow this link. When you’re ready

With the publication of exquisite literary gems like Foster and Small Things Like These, Irish writer Claire Keegan’s reputation among American readers is slowly, but steadily, growing. The three elegantly-crafted stories collected in So Late in the Day: Stories of Women and Men will only enhance that increasing regard. In the title story, Cathal, a

It’s Best Books of Year season, and the New York Times has just put out their contribution: 100 Notable Books of 2023. These are the books selected by the staff of The New York Times Book Review as the standouts among thousands of new books that they received this year. The list is split into

A line from Jessica Johns’ haunting, atmospheric and beautiful debut novel, Bad Cree, has been tumbling around in my head since I set the book down. “That’s the thing about the [prairie]. . . . It’ll tell you exactly what it’s doing and when, you just have to listen.” Johns’ protagonist, a young Cree woman

New Zealand author Paul Cleave has won multiple awards and been on bestseller lists, but isn’t yet a household name as a crime fiction author in Britain or North America. That could change – each new novel offers something different and he is a master of twisty tales that put characters through the wringer. And, let’s

As long as piracy has existed, it has been shrouded in myth, legend and rumor, which compromises the reliability of primary texts describing its major figures. Author Katherine Howe tackles this historical pitfall in her newest novel, A True Account. Hannah Masury, nicknamed “Hannah Misery” by the clientele at the waterfront inn where she works

Back in 2019, we were infatuated with Australian author Chris Hammer’s novel, Scrublands. Set in a drought-shrivelled town in New South Wales, this brutal whydunnit has been made into a four-part crime drama which begins airing Thursday 16 November in Australia via Stan. At 9pm on Saturday 18 November, it will be Hammer time in

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