Did Agatha Christie have a spy in the government’s top-secret codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park? That was the fear of intelligence chiefs at MI5.
Schlagwort-Archive: The Guardian
Artikel: Stephen King says Shining sequel is ‘real creepy scary stuff’
Author says “Doctor Sleep”, due in September, marks a return to the kind of fiction that really frightens readers.
Podcast: Crime fiction with Joseph Wambaugh and Gillian Flynn
In this week’s programme we track down some of the hottest American crime writers, and investigate the tradition that has created them. Wwith Gillian Flynn, Joseph Wambaugh, Michael Koryta and Peter Messent.
Bestselling author and gun owner says ‘autos and semi-autos are weapons of mass destruction’ in 25-page work for Kindle.
Rezensionen: Renne, Bauer, Hannah, Kelly, May
Laura Wilson reviews “The Man from Primrose Lane” by James Renne, “Rubbernecker” by Belinda Bauer, “The Carrier” by Sophie Hannah, “The Burning Air” by Erin Kelly and “The Chessmen” by Peter May.
Artikel: “Father Brown”
Sherlock Holmes might be sexier, but GK Chesterton’s atmospheric Father Brown stories are the best the genre has ever seen.
Artikel: Jakob Arjouni obituary
German crime writer whose private eye Kemal Kayankaya operated in Frankfurt’s seedy underworld
Rezension: Christopher Moran: “Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain”
What role has elite arrogance played in government secrecy? This book provides a valuable if limited answer. This is a well-researched and fascinating book, despite the blinkers. And it ends with a note of caution for those of us liberal historians.
Rezension: Peter Leonard: “Back from the Dead”
Here comes “Back from the Dead”, Peter Leonard’s fifth thriller and just as lowlife and urban as its predecessors. Just as teeth-clenchingly, unremittingly exciting, too. Don’t pick the book up if you have any intention of putting it down before you’ve got to the end
Rezension: Tom Benn: “Chamber Music”
“Chamber Music” opens two years after we left Bane being stitched up by Holland: Things are not looking up for Bane in this brilliant follow-up to “The Doll Princess”, in which he comes face-to-face with a huge Rasta and a terrifying komodo dragon
Rezension: Malcolm Mackay: “The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter”
“It’s easy to kill a man,” you’re told by your omniscient narrator (more on the second person later). “It’s hard to kill a man well. People who do it well know this. People who do it badly find out the hard way.”
Rezension: Maria Konnikova: “Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes”
Emulating Arthur Conan-Doyle’s fictional sleuth requires more than a deerstalker and a predilection for the violin – attention to detail and a questioning, methodical approach are vital.
Portrait: Ian Rankin
How do you know when a novel is finished? When the deadline is approaching. Laura Barnett spoke with Ian Rankin, the author of “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”
Rezensionen: Laura Wilson’s crime fiction roundup
“The Return of the Thin Man” by Dashiell Hammett, “Hard Twisted” by C Joseph Greaves, “Gold Digger” by Frances Fyfield, “Scratch Deeper” by Chris Simms, “Vulture Peak” by John Burdett and “Killing the Emperors” by Ruth Dudley Edwards.
Rezension: Diana Souhami: “Murder at Wrotham Hill”
It was a passing driver who spotted the woman’s shoe lying by the road. Times were hard in Britain in 1946 and good shoes unaffordable; he hoped to locate the matching shoe and that the pair would fit his wife.
Rezension: Ian Cobain: “Cruel Britannia”
Cobain and Clive Stafford Smith once shared the comfortable notion that Britain stood above the nastiness of torture. Cobain’s book demonstrates how naive they were. A history of Britain’s involvement with torture is essential reading.
Rezension: Ian Rankin: “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”
Did anyone really believe Ian Rankin was going to stop writing about John Rebus, the cantankerous, alcoholic detective who was retired by his creator, to much mourning, in 2006? In his latest novel, the dinosaur detective returns to run riot in a PC world.
Rezension: Juan Gabriel Vásquez: “The Sound of Things falling”
Maya Jaggi on a piece of Latin American literary noir that lays bare the costs of the drugs trade. “The Sound of Things Falling”, which won Spain’s Alfaguara prize last year, focuses on the bewilderment and fear of a society corrupted and taken over by stealth.
Artikel: Is crime fiction ready for black villains?
There’s a long-running literary joke that the black guy never makes it past chapter 10. Fiona Snyckers from Guardian South Africa Network explains how South African writers are changing this.
Rezension: Ian Rankin: “Standing in Another Man’s Grave”
DI John Rebus, retired in 2006 after 18 cases in line with Ian Rankin’s hyper-realistic policy of ageing his characters in real time, has now returned to work, again in line with actual police procedure, as a civilian consultant on cold case inquiries.