Sophie hannah

This month’s Killer Reads Book of the Month is the first Poirot mystery, THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES. You can join the debate on GoodReads here: http://bit.ly/1wWAv3F When my agent first suggested to me that I ought to… Read More

World Book Night 2014 is officially celebrated today, with a call for the public to inspire more people fall in love with reading. 12,500 copies of 20 specially printed World Book Night titles, totaling 250,000 books, will be given by a network of volunteer reading enthusiasts and institutions. Very excitingly,… Read More

Last month Laura, our Agatha Christie Brand Manager, expert and all-round Christie fan, attended the Agatha Christie Festival! Here’s Laura’s roundup of what took place… The international bestselling crime writer, Sophie Hannah, who is to write a new Agatha Christie novel, appeared at the famous Agatha Christie Festival… Read More

We are VERY excited to share that a brand new, fully-authorised Poirot novel will be published worldwide in September 2014! Find out lots more information in the press release below… Fully-authorised Poirot novel to be published worldwide in September 2014 The international bestselling crime writer, Sophie Hannah, is to… Read More

Wondering what to read this year? Look no further. The Killer Reads Team have put pen to paper to tell you what we’re most excited about publishing and reading in 2013.   Emad Akhtar, Assistant Editor for Crime and Thriller, says: The books I'm most excited about publishing: The Tower by Simon Toyne, marks the end of the Sancti trilogy, and will definitely be an event for all the people who have been following this story from Sanctus. You can read any of them on their own, to be honest – they are just amazing, slick, satisfying thrillers which take you to really unexpected places. I don’t think anyone’s quite doing what he’s doing with the genre; a really special mix of ancient themes and cutting-edge ideas.   And of course, The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. If you’ve been following any of the buzz building around this dark, hypnotic serial killer story, then you’ll know that this is one to put everything on hold for. Lauren is a really rare talent, who can bend her imagination to any genre, shaping and mashing-up stories into highly original novels which no-one else could write. I think she’ll win a lot of new fans this year with The Shining Girls, if the early reviews are anything to go by.   Both these books are out in April and if you don’t read at least one of them, I will hold you in contempt forever. Read More

This week sees our Killer Reader Kate Stephenson (pictured right) asking for your views on modern Twisted Thrillers Vs. the classic Murder Mystery... Earlier this year at the Oxford Lit Fest, Sophie Hannah and Simon Brett discussed the respective merits of the dark and twisted new school and the cosy old school of murder mysteries in a panel entitled Murder Mystery: Blood Bath or Brain Teaser? Has crime fiction become too gory? It’s a question hotly debated amongst readers and writers alike. Some hark back to the masters of the cosies like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, and despair that contemporary crime fiction has gone too far, indulging in graphic violence – particularly the torture of women and children – for sensationalist purposes. Others don’t have a problem with it, being that it is fiction, after all. The authors are not committing the violent crimes they describe, nor inciting readers to do so. And surely we’re all consenting adults, making our own reading choices – if what you’re reading offends you, all you need to do is put the book down. Read More