A good novel as detective story, and the detective story as a good novel

While away the winter with would-be classics

Pass the time by these passages into times present and past: post-war to Covid-era

From Shakespeare to Agatha Christie, crime novels invoke the genre’s heritage, sometimes ably and sometimes not

As the days quicken and the shadows lengthen, our thoughts turn naturally to murder

Ian Thomson delves into the most-investigated unsolved killing in British history as the investigation report was finally released on 15 June

From laugh-out-louds to gripping plots, Jeremy Black recommends murder mysteries for the end of the month

We won’t accept policemen are corrupt because the thought of anarchy is intolerable

The murder of Ian Gow – thirty years on