classic crime fiction

The Party at No 5 by Shelley Smith

By Erin Britton

23 September, 2026

There is something distinctly unsettling about the idea of being trapped in your own house. It should be the place where you can retreat from the outside world, shut the door and feel safe. But what happens when the person making your life unbearable is…

Kindle Print Reviews

Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce

By Erin Britton

11 May, 2026

First published in 1960 and now included in the British Library Crime Classics series, Jack on the Gallows Tree is part of the long-running Carolus Deene series. Written by Leo Bruce, the pen name of Rupert Croft-Cooke, the series blends the puzzle mystery traditions of…

Kindle Print Reviews

Airing in a Closed Carriage by Joseph Shearing

By Erin Britton

10 April, 2026

First published in 1943 under the pseudonym Joseph Shearing, Marjorie Bowen’s Airing in a Closed Carriage combines historical fiction, psychological examination and crime writing. Now part of the British Library Crime Classics series, it is a quietly unsettling exploration of suspicion, cruelty and the suffocating…

Kindle Print Reviews

Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth

By Erin Britton

4 November, 2025

This year’s festive addition to the British Library Crime Classics series is Susan Gilruth’s Death in Ambush, which was first published in 1952. It is a Christmas-set mystery, yes, but one less about seasonal cheer and more about the tensions, hypocrisies and secrets that lie…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

Murder at the Black Cat Cafe by Seishi Yokomizo

By Erin Britton

8 September, 2025

Translated by Bryan Karetnyk — Murder at the Black Cat Cafe serves up two sinisterly cerebral cases cracked by Kosuke Kindaichi, Seishi Yokomizo’s sublime series detective. While the motive, means and opportunity differ quite considerably, the nefariousness at the heart of both novellas is firmly…

Features

A classic revisited: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

By Dave Bradley

10 June, 2024

When most people think of Shirley Jackson, they think of horror. The Haunting of Hill House is often cited as the archetypal 20th-century ghost story. Even scaremonger-in-chief Stephen King regards Shirley Jackson as a major influence, devoting 30 pages of his 1982 memoir Danse Macabre…

Kindle Print Reviews

Twice Round the Clock by Billie Houston

By Erin Britton

24 May, 2023

Horace Manning is a sinister madman. He is also a scientific genius. This combination of characteristics provides an indication of danger from the outset of Billie Houston’s Twice Round the Clock, although surprisingly, despite an atmosphere of evil hanging around him like a fog of…

Kindle Print Reviews

Death of a Bookseller by Bernard J Farmer

By Erin Britton

14 April, 2022

Death of a Bookseller, the 100th title to be published in the British Library’s sublime Crime Classics series, marks a welcome return to print for Bernard J Farmer. As Martin Edwards notes in his informative introduction to this new edition, copies of the previously long…

Crime Fiction Lover

The Party at No 5 by Shelley Smith

Jack on the Gallows Tree by Leo Bruce

Airing in a Closed Carriage by Joseph Shearing

Death in Ambush by Susan Gilruth

Murder at the Black Cat Cafe by Seishi Yokomizo

A classic revisited: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Twice Round the Clock by Billie Houston

Death of a Bookseller by Bernard J Farmer

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