Today, Crime Fiction Lover celebrates its second anniversary. We thought we’d celebrate with a very Simpsons-esque looking cake, and send out a big thank-you to the 20,000 people who now visit the site every month, and all our friends on Twitter and Facebook. And of course the day cannot pass without extra helpings of gratitude to the amazing team of CFL contributors. Thank-you! (Anyone new to the site can meet our line-up right here.)

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but on 3 August 2011 we launched Crime Fiction Lover and one of our first reviews was One Step Behind by Henning Mankell. Since then, CFL has become something of a go-to website for lovers of Scandinavian crime fiction and our article Harry Hole is not dead! remains one of our most visited pages. There’s more to CFL, though. One of the articles we launched with, our top five female crime fiction writers, is still a reader favourite according to our stats, as is our top 10 serial killer novels piece. However, the truth of the matter is that we give in-depth coverage of noir, thrillers, mysteries, hardboiled, cosies – every form of crime fiction from every corner of the globe.

Highlights so far also include the two month-long themed events that we’ve established. We’re already planning our content for the second annual Classics in September month, and our third annual New Talent November will follow. If you feel like reminiscing, there’s a recap of Classics in September 2012 here, and NTN 2012 can be found here.

Lots has changed since 3 August 2011. Our team has grown from two to 12 and we’ve had a few come and go during that time. We’re grateful to everybody who’s written for the site as a regular, or as a guest. Yes, we’re carrying advertising now too, and hopefully this is going to help us invest in the content and go on to bigger and better things.

Please let us know what your highlights have been below, and we’ll keep working to be the best crime fiction site on the planet. You can read more history about the site here.