The detective goes on the hunt for Jack the Ripper in this funny but tangled comedy on how crime is sensationalised for entertainment

From Orwell’s ‘horribly observant’ Mrs Wisbeach to Andrea Levy’s benign Queenie – how writers portray landlords tells us much about about changing society through the ages

Humphry Davy on laughing gas, Sigmund Freud on cocaine … how self-experimentation shaped science and art

At the end of a year when murder mysteries rode high in the charts, we ask crime writers to celebrate the best fictional detectives

Millie Bobby Brown returns as Sherlock’s plucky sister in a charming, if mostly forgettable, follow-up to the 2020 hit

What starts as a straight Conan Doyle adaptation takes a surprising twist in this two-hander about the limitations of story

The canine curse is given a comic makeover, sapping the story of its terror but bringing laughs and charming energy from the cast of three

These fiendishly clever mystery novels have spawned pop culture icons, anime and a museum. And, best of all, honkaku plays fair – you have the clues to solve the crime