Crime Fiction Lover

Translated by Louise Heal Kawai — Masateru Konishi’s My Grandfather, the Master Detective arrives in English translation with a lot of buzz: it’s a Japanese bestseller, winner of the This Mystery is Amazing! prize and positioned as a gentle, puzzle-focused crime novel in the vein…

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the shops are teeming with Christmas decorations, Father Christmas impersonators sweating in their suits, and Boney M blaring through the speakers, while most of the South African population heads off to the beach…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young women in possession of a fine mind must be in pursuit of a murderer. Or words to that effect. 16 December 2025 marks Jane Austen’s 250th birthday and what better way to celebrate than with a…

Translated by Philip Roughton — The topography, geography and meteorology of Iceland are never far out of mind in Arnaldur Indridason’s crime stories. His most recent to be published in English, The Quiet Mother, is a police procedural. It’s the third novel featuring Indridason’s detective,…

Each new reading year brings its own surprises – some more macabre than others – and 2025 has distinguished itself with an exceptional range of crime fiction. From richly researched historical intrigue to inventive cosy crime, from epistolary puzzles to genre-blurring psychological mysteries, my top…

Opening one of Val McDermid’s police procedurals – especially those featuring Police Scotland’s Karen Pirie and her dedicated team in the Historic Cases Unit – is like being driven to a rewarding destination in a luxury limo. Everything works flawlessly, with no plot holes or…