Lawson’s Lay of the Land

Its headline suggests it’s a straightforward list of “The Best Crime Books and Thrillers of 2017.” But Mark Lawson’s latest contribution to The Guardian is actually a much more pleasant—and broader—cruise through this year’s abundant crime-fiction offerings.

Yes, the UK broadcaster and critic touts a variety of familiar releases from the last 12 months (including John le Carré’s A Legacy of Spies, Attica Locke’s Bluebird, Bluebird, Mick Herron’s Spook Street, and Emma Flint’s Little Deaths). Lawson also goes beyond that, though, to remark on the welcome “republication of vintage crime bestsellers,” and he tips his hat to the late P.D. James and Ruth Rendell, both of whom, he notes, “continue a consoling publishing afterlife.”

You will find all of his observations here.