Crime fiction: the pick of the criminal crop from Rebecca Gowers, Tim Maleeny and moreNew from Rebecca Gowers, Tim Maleeny, Antti Tuomainen and Hannelore CayreTue Dec 31 2019 - 06:00
How do you write a novel? A draft in time saves nineDeclan Burke, the author of The Lammisters, is frequently asked about his process. Here he reveals allWed Nov 13 2019 - 05:57
Crime novels: The pick of the criminal cropLatest works by MC Beaton, Stephen O’Rourke, Paddy Hirsch, Frances Brody and James SallisSat Nov 02 2019 - 06:00
Lee Child: ‘If it comes to it, I’ll kill Jack Reacher. No problem’The writer on prizing plausibility, the casting of Tom Cruise as a giant, and migrating to NetflixSat Oct 26 2019 - 06:00
Crime fiction round-up: A rape allegation blows apart a college reunionClaire McGowan’s novel is unapologetically political and riddled with moral dilemmasSat Sept 07 2019 - 06:00
Crime fiction round-up: If you’re going to steal a title, steal from ChandlerLaura Lippman, Haylen Beck, Kate Atkinson, Adrian McKinty and Lauren WilkinsonSat Jul 13 2019 - 06:00
Crime fiction round-up: Dave Duggan’s thriller begins on a football pitchPlus new thrills from Oliver Harris, C L Taylor, JM Alvey and Peter HellerSat May 18 2019 - 06:00
The Man Who Was Saturday review: Airey Neave’s life in the shadowsPatrick Bishop revels in contradictions of Conservative who was notoriously privateSat Apr 06 2019 - 06:00
New crime fiction: Scandi noir and secrets of the Irish super-richA bleak trip down The Silver Road while Jo Spain deliciously evokes Golden Age mysteriesSat Mar 23 2019 - 06:00
The Friends of Harry Perkins: A Very British Coup gets a sequelPoliticking and double-dealing in a post-Brexit satire by former Labour MP Chris MullinSat Mar 23 2019 - 06:00
The Wolf and the Watchman review: chilling historical mystery novelNiklas Natt och Dag’s debut crime novel is set in Stockholm in the late 18th centurySat Feb 09 2019 - 06:00
‘I’ve always been socially aware, because of where I come from’The Dublin author Jo Spain has had five bestsellers in four years, and a hit TV series, ‘Taken Down’Thu Feb 07 2019 - 06:00
The Redeemed review: A hugely satisfying conclusion to the West Country trilogyTim Pears’ language is as spare and evocative as everSat Jan 26 2019 - 06:00
New crime fiction: from Louisiana to MoscowAlso Sarah Armstrong, Antti Tuomainen, Hanna Jameson and Anthony J QuinnSat Jan 26 2019 - 06:00
In the Dark River review: A skeleton is found in Victorian Dublin’s PoddleConor Brady’s Joe Swallow may be the most realistic policeman in Irish crime fictionSat Dec 08 2018 - 06:00
Crime landscapes of US frontier, hypnosis, Big Phama and GalwayNovels from Kevin McCarthy, Tanya Farrelly, Fiona Gartland, Nessa O’Mahony and Jack TaylorSat Dec 01 2018 - 06:00
The best new crime fiction: JK Rowling and a parallel universeBosch journeys into darkness in Connelly’s latest while ‘Lethal White’ blends murder and blackmailSat Oct 06 2018 - 06:00
The best new crime fiction: bloody messes everywhereFrom Val McDermid, Richard Anderson, Tod Goldberg, Karen Perry and Megan AbbottSat Aug 11 2018 - 06:00
Crime fiction: Stephen King goes Poe and Bill Clinton arms the presidentPlus: an agreeably quirky Roman murder mystery; and an appearance by Arthur Conan DoyleSat Jun 16 2018 - 06:00
Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healey review: a gripping taleThis second novel from the Costa award-winning author examines the difficulties in dealing with a loved one’s depressionSat May 05 2018 - 06:00
The best new crime fictionJohn Connolly, Gerard Brennan, Dervla McTiernan, Cormac O’Keeffe and Olivia KiernanSat Apr 21 2018 - 06:00
Jo Nesbø’s Macbeth lacks the nihilistic thrill of Shakespeare’s originalThe bestselling Scandi novelist reimagines the tale in the grim setting of 1950s InvernessSat Apr 07 2018 - 06:00
Crime fiction highlights: The Woman in the Window – Genuine Fraud – The Long Silence – One Good Reason – ConsentTaking its cue from Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’, as well as a host of noir classics, ‘The Woman in the Window’ offers a clever variation on the unreliable narratorSat Feb 24 2018 - 06:00
Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit review: a gripping tale of domestic terrorThis psychological thriller was inspired by the author’s experience of being stalkedSat Feb 03 2018 - 06:00
Celtic tiger, hidden motive: the best of the new crime books‘The Confession’ is a post-crash thriller, and ‘Undertow’ is haunted by Northern Ireland’s pastSat Dec 30 2017 - 06:00
The Irish spy novel comes in from the coldGiven our history of colonisation, it’s no surprise that Irish writers should balk at celebrating the spy as heroSat Dec 09 2017 - 06:00
Crime fiction from hillbilly noir to a cold war potboilerLatest crime books reviewed: Val McDermid’s ‘shocking denouement’ and black dahlia case solvedSat Oct 07 2017 - 06:00
From women who pull the strings to tales of old corruptionDeclan Burke looks at five absorbing new publications in the crime genreSat Aug 12 2017 - 06:00
Here and Gone review: Raising hell in Arizona with a gripping thrillerHaylen Beck is the pseudonym of Northern Irish crime writer Stuart Neville, and this high-concept Atlantic-crossing novel deftly straddles classic US and British crime fictionSat Jul 29 2017 - 06:00
Meet the newest tarnished knight of LA’s mean streetsThe Late Show by Michael Connelly review: Gone are Harry Bosch and MIckey Haller - but Connelly’s song remains essentially the sameTue Jul 18 2017 - 14:00
From Brian McGilloway to Elena Varvello, the best new crime fiction‘The Gallows Pool’, ‘Exquisite’, ‘Bad Blood’, ‘Can You Hear Me?’ and ‘The City of Lies’Sat Jun 17 2017 - 06:00
Before We Fell review: brilliantly unconventional domestic noir‘Mystic River’ author Dennis Lehane reaffirms his mastery of the crime narrativeSat May 20 2017 - 06:00
Crime thrillers stray into realm of the deadParanormal tinge to recent offerings lends new meaning to term ‘criminal underworld’Sat Apr 22 2017 - 06:00
Constance Kopp and Sean Duffy back in best of crime fictionNew books from Ali Land, Amy Stewart, EO Chirovici, Julia Crouch and Adrian McKintySat Feb 25 2017 - 06:00
The Horseman review: Bittersweet elegy to an innocent, idyllic worldThe plot, centring around a schoolboy with a passion for horses, is little more than a skeletal structure that allows the writer to flesh out a vibrant, vividly detailed DevonSat Feb 18 2017 - 04:00
Spook Street: The most impressive new work in spy fictionMick Herron possesses that intangible gift given to all great writers, the ability to persuade the reader that he or she alone is privy to an intimate conversationSat Feb 04 2017 - 06:00
Crime fiction review: The reluctant secret policemanAn ambitous novel blending police procedural, spy novel and historical mysterySat Nov 26 2016 - 06:00
The Wrong Side of Goodbye review: One of US crime fiction’s great detectivesMichael Connelly creates parallel plots driven by clear, crisp and precise proseSat Nov 19 2016 - 06:00
Trouble is Our Business: why Irish crime writers are a law unto themselvesWhat is most interesting about the boom in Irish crime writing is that the very absence of a domestic tradition has given Irish writers carte blanche to play with the genreMon Oct 17 2016 - 14:20
Crime Fiction: Comic turns on the mean streets and dangerous times to be a childReviews: Razor Girl, Closed Casket, Dr Knox, The Hermit, The Drowning ChildSat Oct 01 2016 - 05:00
The Constant Soldier review: A good German takes on the NazisDeclan Burke found William Ryan’s WWII novel both nuanced and grippingSat Aug 27 2016 - 15:23
Crime fiction: Paris parlay, Dublin yawp, Caribbean heat and cold war thrillsReviews: A Climate of Fear; Blood for Blood; The Killing of Polly Carter; The Last One and The Unfortunate EnglishmanSat Aug 06 2016 - 05:55
Paradime by Alan Glynn review: darkly comic thrillerA veteran of the war in Iraq meets his double in a compellingly paranoid conspiracy taleSat Jun 18 2016 - 01:22
Crime fiction: Ghetto blasters on a road trip to their doomReviews: ‘Dodgers’, ‘Art in the Blood’, ‘Ghosts of the Desert’, ‘Girls on Fire’, ‘Nomad’Sat Jun 11 2016 - 01:02
New crime: ‘Maestra’, ‘The Trap’, ‘Six Four’, ‘The Wing-Orderly’s Tales’Reviews by Declan BurkeSat Apr 16 2016 - 01:12
Crime fiction reviews: Sophie Hannah’s new murderer has a poetic licence to killSophie Hannah’s The Narrow Bed; Ava McCarthy’s Dead Secret; Mary Paulson-Ellis’s The Other Mrs Walker; Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer; Nicholas Searle’s The Good LiarSat Feb 20 2016 - 00:20
The best crime fiction of 2015Irish authors feature prominently among the year’s best additions to the genre, writes Declan BurkeSat Dec 19 2015 - 01:00
Crime fiction: How Prime Suspect’s Jane Tennison turned into a trailblazerThe young policewoman has a baptism of fire in Lynda La Plante’s latest novel, set in 1973Sat Oct 24 2015 - 01:00
Crime reviews: Elaborate confessions, historic skeletons, heartbreaking tragedyMark Henshaw’s The Snow Kimono; Andrea Carter’s Death at Whitewater Church; A Little More Free by John McFetridge; Julia Heaberlin’s Black-Eyed Susans; Jamie Kornegay’s SoilSat Aug 29 2015 - 01:00
Quirke back doing the right thing in ‘mean and mendacious’ cityDeclan Burke reviews the best new crime fiction including a new Benjamin Black bookSat Aug 01 2015 - 01:00
