A bestselling romance writer leaves his wife for a glamorous new partner in this 1940 play whose gender politics feel toothless now

From Agatha Christie to Richard Osman, these books are not without seriousness but they are all set in warm and human worlds we might prefer to our own

Sayers, creator of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey, was a founding member of the Detection Club, a secret society for crime writers founded in 1930, and still going today

A famous crime novelist, an am-dram star and ‘the Moss Side tigress’ in a tribute to female friendship

This skilfully completed ‘continuation novel’, set in a New Zealand hospital, is an exquisite reminder of the brilliance of Marsh’s London detective

As well as masterful exercises in suspense and social realism, the best fiction in this genre is also a rich repository of slang. And that’s no Archbishop Laud

From Sherlock Holmes to Inspector Maigret, fictional detectives often have healthy appetites, while ‘culinary cozy’ combines murders with recipes. Why do crime writers have a taste for food?

Agatha Christie, Sarah Waters and AS Byatt flesh out our pick of stories to make your skin crawl at the spookiest time of the year

While their politics may be unappealing, you’re missing out on some expert storytelling and brilliant characterisation if you ignore these books

Unpublished memoirs of Charles Pick, who signed major writers from Roald Dahl to Salinger, recount tales of humour and hubris