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To the Max: September Crime with Maxim Jakubowski
It’s not all crime and murders you know! Leading my preferences this month are two outstanding speculative thrillers by American authors which are both highly distinctive but with eerie similarities or parallels. Add a spicy return to patriotic thuggery for James Bond, an old favourite hitman now working under duress for MI5, Shakespeare and Anne Marlowe on the historical prowl, an Atlanta-set social epic, a Nigerian detective facing UK mores, Ken Bruen’s final novel in his beloved Galway, etc… Something for all tastes.
We started a crime festival by accident: Philip Gwynne Jones on Venice Noir
We started a crime festival by accident. No, we really did.
Just four years have passed since David Hewson, Gregory Dowling and I held an evening event in the upstairs room at Libreria Studium, just a short walk from Piazza San Marco. People were queuing down the stairs. Although to be fair, it is quite a small room.
BLOODY SCOTLAND REVEALS FINALISTS FOR 2026 McILVANNEY PRIZE
BLOODY SCOTLAND REVEALS THE FINALISTS FOR THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2026 Winner to be presented at 5pm on Friday 18 September 2026
Two by Elmore Leonard, Three by B. Traven
Elmore Leonard: SPLIT IMAGES & LA BRAVA; B. Traven :THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, THE BRIDGE IN THE JUNGLE, THE DEATH SHIP, Penguin
Libraries, Manuscripts and the Original 007: Olly Jarvis talks to Crime Time
Research for my latest thriller, Language of Angels, led me to a very special place – the Old Library at st John’s College, Cambridge, built in the 1620s. Out of bounds for most readers, I was lucky enough to be granted a private tour of this extraordinary room.
Spies: A Summer Reading Feature
If you take a look at any of the streaming services, you will see a number of spy titles available to watch. From classic movies to brand new long-running series. As the author of a book on espionage films, Spies on Screen, I have been keeping an eye on the genre and it is booming as never before. Happily, I can say the same is true of spy fiction, which is also hitting the heights like no time since the Cold War…
John Bleasdale on the Challenge of Ellroy
Liverpool. 1996. Two white guys. Crime heads. Chandler. Hammett. Jim Thompson. Wanted something contemporary. Lawrence Block. Maybe? Scoped Waterstones. Blackwells. Charity shops. Oxfam. White Jazz? Demon Dog of Crime? What is this? £4.99 and a packet of Twix. 2 pints of bitter. Golden Virginia tobacco and a packet of Rizlas.
2026’s Theakston Old Peculier Awards for Griffiths, Crawford & Baldacci
The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths wins 2026’s Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year with Frances Crawford winning the McDermid Debut Award and Outstanding Contribution Award going to David Baldacci,
The Makoto Murders: Richard Jerram talks to Crime Time
The Makoto Murders is the product of my MA in crime fiction at the UEA, where your thesis is a full manuscript. It’s a great course that’s produced lots of successful crime writers, and three of my dozen classmates already have publishing deals. I’ve always read a lot of crime fiction and often found it frustrating. Sometimes the plot only moves forward when the intelligent protagonist does something stunningly stupid
James Ellroy’s Red Sheet
Diving into James Ellroy’s Red Sheet — a novel that is both lacerating and mesmerising in equal parts — is an experience that will leave the reader with metaphorical bruises.
Pulp to Picture: Badge of Evil
A tale of murder, corruption and the pursuit of justice set in 1950s California in the novel behind the noir classic movie, Touch of Evil. The latest Film Noir Classic title from Stark House Press is Whit Masterson’s Badge of Evil. The 1956 novel was adapted for the big screen by Orson Welles in 1958 as Touch of Evil. The film is a classic but what about that original novel? Whit Masterson, aka Wade Miller, is actually writing duo, Robert Allison Wade, 1921-2012, and H. William Miller, 1920-1961. Friends from high school in San Diego, the pair went on to edit their college newspaper before writing 33 books together. Nicholas Litchfield’s informative and insightful introduction tells us Wade Miller sold over 14 million books and were translated into 15 languages. Badge of Evil was one of eight of their novels filmed.
I have read Wade Miller but not this novel. I go into it with trepidation, I know the film well, it is one of my favourites. It isn’t perfect but it is a fine movie. It has one of my favourite lines:
VENICE NOIR
LUCY WORSLEY and IAN RANKIN revealed as headline speakers for the second edition of VENICE NOIR as full international programme is announced
To the Max: August Crime
Eddie Flynn redux (and all the more welcome for it…), the fall of Berlin, rural serial killers on the rampage, black widows on the prowl, a deep dive into India’s underworld, gothic haunted hotels, crime and drug running on American Indian reservations, the White House under attack and crimes on the streets of Sheffield: all the tasty highlights of August’s batch of criminous publications
The Last Retreat: Marina Palmer talks to Crime Time
A conflict photographer retreats to a luxury wellness estate in Northumberland only to discover the threats she faces there are as dangerous as those on the battlefield.
Barry Forshaw on August Crime in the Financial Times
Covering in the FT:
The Depths/Yrsa Sigurdardottir, Hodder
Wisdom Corner/David Heska Wanbli Weiden, S & S
All Killers Aboard/David Fennell, Orion
The Mermaid’s Cry/Kate Rhodes, Orenda Books
The Kingpin/A A Dhand, HQ
The Night Stairs/Erin Kelly, Harvill
The Venetian Redemption/Philip Gwynne Jones, Constable
They Say a Girl Died Here/Sarah Pinborough, Orion
To the Max: July Crime with Maxim Jakubowski
If summer days are made for reading, there is an abundance of worthwhile titles this month, with a smattering of serial killers, albeit not all of a bloodthirsty nature, exotic noir set in Mexico, a splashy return to form and bad habits for James Ellroy, an intriguing thriller about running (both metaphorically and sports-related), the horror of Warsaw in WW2 and much more. The choice is yours.
LE FULL HOUSE plus new discs from Arrow
Covering: LE FULL HOUSE
Henri Verneuil, director/INDICATOR
FALLING DOWN, Joel Schumacher, director/ ARROW 4K
TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A, William Friedkin, director/ ARROW
THE OUTFIT, John Flynn, director/ ARROW
Eden Falls: Ajay Chowdhury talks to Crime Time
What began with a magnifying glass hovering over a footprint has, over the years, exploded into a glittering arsenal of blood tests, ballistics, CCTV, DNA, smartphones, search histories and now, AI. Each new technology gives the criminal new ways to hide, but it also gives the detective new ways to seek.
Porn, Gambling, and the American Psyche with Dennis Broe
Novelist and film critic Dennis Broe takes a critical look at the pornography and gambling industries – the new bread and circuses being moldy bread and virtual circuses
From Arrow: The Outfit plus other Crime Blu-rays
THE OUTFIT, John Flynn, director/Arrow Limited Edition
While Donald Westlake’s achievement as a crime writer is legendary, many readers have a sneaking regard for the cold, spare Parker novels he wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Stark.
Crime Writers’ Association Announce 2026 Dagger Winners
The winners of the prestigious 2026 Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger Awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, have been announced, with Abigail Dean bagging best crime novel of the year.
