A searching question: Heartwood, by Amity Gaige, reviewed
Can the mysterious disappearance of a hiker on the Appalachian Trail be linked to a Department of Defense training facility in backwoods Maine?
Dangerous games of cat and mouse: a choice of crime fiction
A sadistic octogenarian meets her match in a malevolent eight-year-old at a Luxor hotel. Thrillers by Christopher Bollen, Henry Wise, Charlotte Philby and Cristina Rivera Garza reviewed
A mole in the CIA: The Seventh Floor, by David McCloskey, reviewed
McCloskey’s latest thriller is well written and tautly paced, but we feel so little connection with the suspect agents that the eventual unmasking of the mole is an anticlimax
Rebels and whistleblowers: a choice of recent crime fiction
A veteran CIA officer gets involved in an anti-government movement in Bahrain, and a young British intelligence officer infiltrates a news service
Small-town mysteries: A Case of Matricide, by Graeme MacRae Burnet, reviewed
The gifted writer Graeme Macrae Burnet makes a mockery of the genres publishers impose on credulous readers. The author of…
A choice of thrillers for end of summer escapism
Charlotte Philby’s appropriately titled The End of Summer skilfully explores the strains of a double life. Also reviewed: Ajay Close, Charlotte Vassell and Giuseppe Miale di Mauro
A haunting apparition: Bonehead, by Mo Hayder, reviewed
A young policewoman returns to her native Gloucestershire, hoping to solve a mystery connected to a terrible past accident there
An Oxford spy ring is finally uncovered
Charles Beaumont’s warped group, recruited by an eccentric fellow of Jesus College, seems all too plausible. Other thrillers from Celia Walden and Matthew Blake
The chase looms large in the best new thrillers
It’s a brilliant page-turner device and works perfectly in stories set variously during the Algerian war of independence of the 1950s and Norfolk and London in the present day
Espionage dominates the best recent crime fiction
Owen Matthews concludes his magnificent KGB trilogy, and there’s a thrilling debut from David McCloskey, a former CIA Middle East specialist
A gruesome discovery: Death Under a Little Sky, by Stig Abell, reviewed
A police detective inherits a country estate and looks forward to early retirement, but is forced back into action when human bones surface at a village treasure hunt
The latest crime fiction: women provide their own take on sexual violence
There are hard-hitting thrillers from Margie Orford and Rijula Das – as well as an engaging mystery by Erri de Luca
Cosy crime flourishes in the pick of the summer’s thrillers
Cosy crime was once the literary world’s guilty secret, a refuge for any reader seeking entirely unchallenging entertainment – like…
The real Norfolk: Stewkey Blues, by D.J. Taylor, reviewed
D.J. Taylor is a Norfolk native who, un-usually, has stayed put. These stories, written during the pandemic, are all set…
Character is king in the latest crime fiction
Thriller writers are hard pressed to stand out in what’s become a very crowded field. As a result, from Cardiff…
Suspicious circumstances abound in the latest crime fiction
The old adage that everyone has a novel in them has a new version: anyone can write a thriller. Celebrity…
A master of spy fiction to the end — John Le Carré’s Silverview reviewed
Literary estates work to preserve a writer’s reputation — and sometimes milk it too. The appearance of this novel by…
Nazis and Nordics: the latest crime fiction reviewed
Social historians of the future may look back at the reading habits of this era and conclude that we were…
Secret treaties and games of cat and mouse: a choice of recent crime fiction
Almost any promising writer of spy fiction can expect at some point to be called the ‘next Le Carré’, an…
Carrying on loving: Elizabeth Hardwick’s and Robert Lowell’s remarkable correspondence throughout the 1970s
Since Robert Lowell’s sudden death in 1977 his critical reputation has suffered from the usual post-mortem slump. Interest in Lowell’s…
