The Hunter by Tana French review – a master of her craft
In this sequel to The Searcher, the bestselling author picks up with retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper and co in a richly told tale of tangled loyalties
December 2022
Guess who? Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Sophie Hannah and other crime writers reveal their favourite detectives
At the end of a year when murder mysteries rode high in the charts, we ask crime writers to celebrate the best fictional detectives
January 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 books about amnesia
Writers from Julian Barnes to Oliver Sacks and Petina Gappah find some profound truths in what gets lost to memory
December 2020
Thrillers of the month
The best recent thrillers – review roundup
A Chicago cop causes ripples in a remote Irish village, and darkness descends on Dartmoor
October 2020
Books that made me
Tana French: 'I cannot see the point of DH Lawrence’s Women in Love'
Top 10s
Top 10 horror novels
April 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 Irish gothic novels
From ancient terrors to modern horrors, authors from Oscar Wilde to Anna Burns have found in Ireland rich and genuinely scary storytelling terrain
January 2020
Top 10s
Top 10 books about toxic masculinity
The term may be new, but as stories from Homer to Henry James show, the behaviour is anything but
June 2019
Books that made me
Harlan Coben: 'I cry a lot when I write – I need to cry more when I’m reading'
Best books of 2019 so far
February 2019
On my radar
On my radar: Tana French’s cultural highlights
The Wych Elm by Tana French review – a portrait of privilege
Book of the day
The Wych Elm by Tana French review – a forensic examination of privilege
Tana French: ‘Nobody with imagination should commit a crime. You wouldn't handle the stress'
October 2016
The Trespasser by Tana French review – a smart, twisty crime novel
The interrogation scenes in the Dublin Murder Squad could rival those of John le Carré
September 2016
Book of the day
The Trespasser by Tana French – review
Dublin detective Antoinette Conway returns in French’s absorbing tale of a murder that looks like a lovers’ tiff
December 2014
Observer books of the year 2014
The best thrillers of 2014
A murder mystery in a girls’ boarding school, the welcome return of Hercule Poirot and Philip Marlowe, and Lauren Beukes’s truly disturbing crime chiller. By Alison Flood
October 2014
Books to Die For review – passionate advocacy for gems of crime fiction
This compendium of essays by crime writers of their favourite books in the genre is often personal and always fascinating, writes Stephanie Merritt
September 2014
The Secret Place review – Tana French brings murder to private school
French's latest novel, set among feuding schoolgirl cliques, combines intricate plotting and psychological depth, says Laura Wilson
August 2014
Meet the author
Tana French: 'I've always been interested in the intensity of friendship and the dangers that come with that'
The award-winning crime novelist talks to Stephanie Merritt about why she switched careers and what attracts her about murder mysteries
