Murder
Murder in the dark: The Eighth House, by Linda Segtnan, reviewed
Motherhood prompts Segtnan to research the cold case of Birgitta Sivander, a nine-year-old found murdered in a Swedish forest in 1948
What became of Thomas Becket’s bones?
Alice Roberts’s examinations of violent deaths in the past take her to the site of Becket’s murder in Canterbury cathedral and the later destruction of his shrine by Henry VIII
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
Satirical pulp: The Possessed, by Witold Gombrowicz, reviewed
The 1939 Gothic pastiche which the author was at pains to distance himself from is now considered a delightfully devious work of Polish modernism
An untrue true crime story: Penance, by Eliza Clark, reviewed
A teasing piece of crime fiction weaves together real and invented murders in a satire on the true crime genre and its devotees
Ireland’s most notorious murderer still casts a disturbing spell
After months of conversations with Ireland’s most notorious murderer, Mark O’Connell got both more and less than he bargained for, says Frances Wilson
Lies about the Katyn massacre added insult to the horror
Alan Philps reveals how many western journalists, duped by Stalinist propaganda, rushed to blame the Nazis for the Soviet atrocity
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
Evil geniuses
Does knowledge of the wrongs committed by Caravaggio, Picasso, Roman Polanski and other ‘monsters’ condition our response to their art, wonders Claire Dederer
Was it murder?
In a beautifully told novel, O’Callaghan focuses on the mysterious death of the footballer Matthias Sindelar in 1939 – possibly as a result of defying Hitler
Murder most foul: The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell, reviewed
There’s a moment near the end of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue ‘My Last Duchess’ when it becomes clear that the…
Whodunits shouldn’t be dismissed as a guilty pleasure
What a weird lot crime writers are. I don’t come to this conclusion lightly, since I’m a crime writer myself,…
Murder, suicide and apocalypse: Here Goes Nothing, by Steve Toltz, reviewed
Angus Mooney is dead. Freshly murdered, he’s appalled to find himself in an Afterworld, having always rejected the possibility of…
Will Macron surrender to the mob?
It has been a torrid few days in France. In the early hours of Saturday morning, a former Argentine rugby…
A long-forgotten tale of sorcery and a severed head
Laikipia Plateau, Kenya Our local chief Panta wore a government-issue khaki uniform with epaulettes, beret and swagger stick. On a…
A glimpse of the real Patricia Highsmith through her diaries and notebooks
Through her diaries and notebooks we finally catch a glimpse of the real Patricia Highsmith, says Christopher Priest
More penny dreadful than Dickensian: Lily, by Rose Tremain, reviewed
Rose Tremain’s 15th novel begins with a favoured schmaltzy image of high Victoriana: it is a night (if not dark…
The Met must face the truth about Sarah Everard's murder
‘We are sickened, angered and devastated by this man’s crimes which betray everything we stand for,’ said the Metropolitan Police…
The man who made Manhattan: The Great Mistake, by Jonathan Lee, reviewed
What makes a city? The collective labour of millions packed into its history; the constant forgetting of incomers who arrive…
Sweden's gun crime epidemic is spiralling out of control
The shots were fired at 1pm on a Sunday, in spite of a heavy police presence at the scene. A…
Bugsy Siegel — the gangster straight out of a Hollywood movie
Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel was about as meta-gangsterish as a real life gangster could get. Born in the slums of Manhattan’s…
When the King of the Delta Blues came home — the family life of Robert Johnson
Whatever would Robert Johnson, self-styled King of the Delta Blues, have made of the Black Lives Matter movement? His was…
Northern noir: The Mating Habits of Stags, by Ray Robinson, reviewed
It is winter in north Yorkshire. On the brink of New Year, Jake, a laconic, isolated former farmhand in his…
The dark past of the pioneering photographer Eadweard Muybridge
A distinctive pattern of horizontal and vertical lines appears in the background of many of Eadweard Muybridge’s best-known photographs, giving…
You’d never believe what goes on in the Sainsbury’s car park
Psychogeography takes many forms: Sebaldian gravitas, Will Self’s provocative flash and dazzle and Iain Sinclair’s jeremiads for lost innocence. Gareth…
