Books

Think back to the most violent, twisted and darkest Scandinavian crime fiction you’ve ever read. Now imagine the polar opposite and you might be close to Alexander McCall Smith‘s Scandi Blanc series – his own cosy version of Nordic Noir. You won’t find graphic murders or tormented serial killers here, but rather the obscure and

I can no longer open my various inboxes without seeing something about AI: newsletters remarking on the success or failure of various AI tech and startups, urgent calls to explore AI tools designed for social media and content managers, headlines about how AI is being used in exciting and terrible ways across industries…So, while I

Here’s one that will interest crime fiction lovers in North America. Season three of the British crime series Van der Valk is coming to PBS Masterpiece with three feature-length episodes beginning on Sunday 3 September 2023. This time around, Commissaris Piet Van der Valk of the Amsterdam police – played by Marc Warren – faces

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

Addison Rizer is a writer and reader of anything that can be described as weird, sad, or scary. She loves 70s game shows, musicals, and bowling. Her snack bowl is always full of sour candy. Find her published work or contact her on her website at www.addisonrizer.com or at addisonrizer at gmaildotcom. View All posts

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

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

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

Former President Barack Obama is known for being a reader, releasing highly anticipated annual lists of his favorite books of the year. Today, he posted a letter thanking librarians for defending the freedom to read and inviting citizens to join the fight against book bans. The letter begins, “In any democracy, the free exchange of

Summer is in full swing — in some parts dangerously so — and if you need a break from the heat/terrible air quality but want to feel connected to others, may I suggest a book club? All but one of the below book clubs are virtual and they offer the flexibility of participating as little

Continuing her series of vodcasts talking to crime fiction authors of all descriptions, Dr Noir returns to our site and with her this time is the English historical crime author Kate Griffin. Watch the video below, in which the pair discuss Kate’s latest book, Fyneshade, a gothic novel set in Victorian times that sees governess

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

Reed Farrel Coleman’s new crime thriller Sleepless City is for readers who like their noir black as ink and thick as pitch. You can’t really call it a police procedural, simply because main character Nick Ryan doesn’t follow law enforcement procedures in any way his superiors would publicly condone. But that’s why he is there

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

A few weeks back we talked to the Danish crime author Michael Katz Krefeld about his first book arriving in translation and already a second has landed. Derailed features one of Denmark’s best known genre detectives – Ravn – and finally Nordic noir fans in the English-speaking world can read of his exploits. If you love

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

Would you survive a murder mystery? Particularly one from the Golden Age of Crime, when fair play, amateur sleuths, closed circles of suspects and logic and deduction were the rules of the game? The answer’s far from certain, but if you arm yourself with as much knowledge of the genre as possible, you’ll have a

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

Perhaps inevitably, the #MeToo movement would uncover complicated situations that go beyond simply punishing sexual predators – which is hardly a simple matter itself – and in Bonnie Kistler’s new thriller, Her, Too, the author reveals a bundle of them. When the story opens, Boston-based defense attorney Kelly McCann has just won a major case

Britney Spears’ memoir, titled The Woman in Me, will be released October 24, 2023. Simon & Schuster’s imprint Gallery Books won the rights to publish it after several publishers vied for it. Spears’ book deal settled on $15 million, making it one of the biggest ever after the Obamas‘. Fans of the pop icon will

The latest in an impressive line of crime-fighting members of the clergy, Canon Daniel Clement returns to tackle his second cosy mystery in A Death in the Parish. It’s been a few months since the disturbing events of Murder Before Evensong and life in the picturesque village of Champton St Mary is just beginning to

Susie (she/her) is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, now living in Washington, DC. She is the author of QUEERLY BELOVED and the forthcoming LOOKING FOR A SIGN from Dial Press/Random House. You can find her on Instagram @susiedoom. View All posts by Susie Dumond Dr. Jennifer Guttman How often do you find yourself

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

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

No. It’s not because we’re woke cultural Marxists. It’s not inverted institutional sexism or conscious unconscious bias. It’s just how the cookie crumbled. Which is a long-winded way of getting to the fact that all five of the new books in this week’s report are by woman authors – something we’re quite pleased about, nonetheless. Fiona

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