Books

Tan Twan Eng’s third novel, which was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, is set in the early 1920s, when the British writer William Somerset Maugham and his secretary (and lover) Gerald Haxton visit the coastal province of Penang, Malaysia, as the guests of Lesley and Robert Hamlyn. Part of Penang’s European elite, Lesley and

As William Shaw, he’s best known for the  Alexandra Cupidi and the Breen and Tozer series of novels, but this author has another string to his bow; as GW Shaw he crafts standalone thrillers, and it is the latest of these, The Conspirators, which sees him chatting with Jacky ‘Dr Noir’ Collins in the latest of her The

Veteran narrators Michael Kramer and Kate Reading return to this fantastical world, along with a new POV portrayed by Marisa Calin.V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, opens another door to a new fantasy series set in the dazzling world of Shades of Magic. Prepare for tangled schemes and perilous

Sam Becker loves—or, okay, likes—his job. Sure, managing a bed and bath retailer isn’t exactly glamorous, but it’s good work and he gets on well with the band of misfits who keep the store running. He could see himself being content here for the long haul. Too bad, then, that the owner is an infuriating

Tiffany D. Jackson is a YA author best known for her books Monday’s Not Coming, Allegedly, and Grown, among others. Her newest book has just been announced, and it’s an original YA novel about the Marvel superhero Storm, titled Storm: Dawn of a Goddess. It will be her first fantasy novel, and it follows Storm

It’s a good week if you’re looking for crime novels offering something a bit different. We’re pretty confident you’ll find the new novels by Boston Teran, Caimh McDonnell and Carey Keith Green in this news report come straight out of left field. Plus, we’ve got an espionage thriller and a domestic thriller for you to

Lies After Death is a crime debut for KJ Dando, someone who has had various jobs and has served in the British Army in the Balkans and Iraq. It’s this army background that seems to funnel into his first novel the most. His main character, Tom Crane, learned the skills he now uses as a

Anthony Ryan is a successful fantasy author, cleaving more towards the ‘grimdark” style of Joe Abercrombie and George RR Martin. For Red River Seven he has switched styles and written near-future dystopian novel that crosses into action thriller territory. Seven strangers wake up in a boat at sea to find that humanity’s survival is at

Back in 2020, we nearly blew up our servers by posting a preview of Nordic Murders when its first season was broadcast in the UK by Channel 4. The article remains one of our most popular to this day. What is it about this German crime show that people love so much? Tell us! Now

We seem to be blessed with a burgeoning historical crime fiction scene in Britain at the moment and Leonora Nattrass is one of the most impressive newcomers. Her debut Black Drop struck a chord with readers and critics alike in 2021, which was followed by Blue Water.  Her latest, Scarlet Town, is the third Laurence

Tom Mead’s debut, Death and the Conjuror, introduced us to amateur sleuth Joseph Spector. It landed with a splash, readers taken with the author’s ingenious double locked-room murder mystery, which played well on one of the oldest formats in the genre. The Murder Wheel is a new adventure for illusionist Spector and a deeper dive

Big Island, LA connects the dots between a heist gone wrong at a police shooting range and corporate greed and political corruption, leaving a former combat marine and an agoraphobic crime reporter to sort out the mystery. It’s a new crime novel from Boston Teran – a writer whose true identity is unknown. Teran began writing

You know it’s been a tough year when people are talking about Christmas weeks and weeks before Halloween. It’s been a tough decade so far, come to think of it. Perhaps another Christmas will be introduced around June time? It would appear this would suit the publishing industry very nicely as here we bring you

Bosch is back on our screens – but be prepared for a drip-feed, Michael Connelly fans! The first four episodes of Bosch: Legacy season two will be available on October 20 on Amazon Freevee and Prime Video. Then the momentum slows, with two episodes streaming on the following three Fridays, making a a total of 10. Click

The lone wolf has an irresistible pull for some crime fiction lovers. In action thrillers like this, the protagonist can be as unconventional as the author likes, which means this is an area where the genre is free to grow and develop. It feels like there is a renaissance going on and debut author Max

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

Translated by Ian Giles — Bestselling Swedish author Camilla Lackberg teamed up with celebrity mentalist Henrik Fexeus to write Trapped, which was published last year. Now, the pair have returned with the second in the series featuring germophobe police officer, Mina Dabiri, and obsessive compulsive mentalist, Vincent Walder. Like its authors, Cult’s two main protagonists

A daydreamer and a bit of a lost cause, Rey loves stories. Whether they’re book shaped or you can see them on a screen, a story always hides in the corners of her mind. She’s working on a few stories of her own, always accompanied by her trusty cat. View All posts by Rey Rowland

Deep Roots is an entertaining soft-boiled PI story that follows on from Sung J Woo’s crime Skin Deep and features Korean-American detective Siobhan O’Brien. If the name and the ethnicity seem at odds, it’s because Siobhan was adopted by an Irish-Norwegian couple in Minnesota, as was her African-American brother, Sven. O’Brien inherited a private investigation

Julia is a professional nerd who can be spotted in the wild lounging with books in the park in Brooklyn, NY. She has a BA in International Studies from the University of Chicago and an MA in Media Studies from Pratt Institute. She loves fandom, theater, cheese, and Edith Piaf. Find her at juliarittenberg.com. View

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

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

Once, when someone complained that Mickey Spillane had eight books in a top 10 chart, he replied along the lines that the reader should be thankful he didn’t write two more. It’s hard to overestimate Spillane’s popularity in the 1950s and 60s. He has sold over 225 million copies and when he died in 2006

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

Some of the finest and funniest contemporary espionage fiction comes from the metaphorical pen of Mick Herron, and the English author is back with his latest – a standalone called The Secret Hours. This is just the beginning, though, because this week we’ve got a cybercrime thriller by Daniel Scanlan, a book that you literally

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) named the Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez in Barcelona, Spain as 2023’s best new public library of the year. The decision was announced August 21st during the 88th IFLA World Library and Information Conference that was held in the Netherlands. The library was named after Colombian writer Gabriel

Today we have a special guest on the site. The English author Ann Cleeves, author of the world famous Shetland and Vera novels, joins us with a reading from her latest book. The Raging Storm has just been released and it’s the third novel in the Two Rivers series, set in North Devon with DI

North Devon tourist board must have been rubbing their hands with glee when Ann Cleeves announced that her new series of books featuring DI Matthew Venn was to be set in their neck of the woods – after all, look what the Vera and Shetland novels (and associated TV dramas) had done for tourism in

The Danish crime series DNA has returned to UK screens with a second season featuring the troubled detective Rolf Larsen, played by Anders W Berthelsen. What it has to offer is a storyline that’s as intriguing as it is harrowing. While DNA is often used to identify perpetrators in real life and in crime shows,

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