THE CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION 2026 LONGLIST THE HISTORICAL DAGGER SPONSORED IN HONOUR OF DR MARILYN LIVINGSTONE A Granite Silence by Nina Allan Spoiler's Prey by Robin Blake Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet The Mourning Necklace by Kate Foster The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon The Rush by Beth Lewis Barvick Falls by Rob McInroy The Devil's Draper by Donna Moore Gunner by Alan Parks Cairo Gambit by SW Perry The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith

Please join us in congratulating all the longlisted authors for The 2026 Historical Dagger sponsored in Honour of Dr Marilyn Livingstone ⚔️📚

Keep your eyes peeled for the shortlist, which will be announced on 28th May! 🗓️

THE CRIME WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION 2026 LONGLIST THE KAA GOLD DAGGER Carnival of Lies by DV Bishop Don't Forget Me, Little Bessie by James Lee Burke King of Ashes by SA Cosby The Death of Us by Abigail Dean Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson Quantum Of Menace by Vaseem Khan The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon The Rush by Beth Lewis A Voice In The Night by Simon Mason The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney The Art of a Lie by Laura Shepherd-Robinson Hotel Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith

Please join us in congratulating all the longlisted authors for The KAA Gold Dagger ⚔️📚

Keep your eyes peeled for the shortlist, which will be announced on 28th May! 🗓️

Thanks honey! Congrats to you too xxx

I’m so delighted that THE ART OF A LIE, my personal favourite of the books I’ve written, has been shortlisted for the Radio 2 Book Club Award, AND longlisted for the CWA Gold and Historical Daggers. What a wonderful way to end the week I turned fifty! Billy and Hannah forever ❤️

I would have every sympathy with Usha Vance should
she devoutly wish to jump out of an airplane and am often surprised that she has yet to do so.

Britain breaks solar energy record twice as UK’s biggest solar farm gets approval Record high set on Monday and raised on Tuesday, with 14.4GW of electricity generated in sunny spring weather

But Zack Polanski said that Labour is in the pockets of fossil fuel donors. How wrong he is.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Inspector Rebus: find a pub that sells pickled eggs. Job done. 🍺

Title: Easter Egg Hunt techniques inspired by great detectives Panel 1: Sherlock Holmes. Deduce the exact location of every egg from seemingly unrelated details without leaving your room. Send your amazed sidekick to fetch them. Panel 2: Jack Reacher Hit the garden hard and fast. Take no prisoners Get back on the road. This approach results in a thrillingly intense hunt, but very few intact eggs. Panel 3: George Smiley Meticulously assess documents, people and motives. Then scrupulously collect the eggs and dejectedly wonder if any of it was worthwhile.

My Easter books cartoon for @theguardian.com

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

More context on this #Artemis II image:

* This is the night side, lit by moonlight. You can see city lights in Spain & Portugal, & a sliver of day at lower right

* The Sun is entirely behind Earth, which makes it a kind of solar eclipse, but w/ Earth doing the eclipsing instead of the Moon:
☀️🌍🚀🌕

It's honestly kind of mind-blowing that this is the first time in over fifty years that anybody has been able to take a picture like this. Images of the earth are completely familiar to us, but a human hasn't pointed a camera at the whole planet for half a century.

A portrait of every being who has ever been alive, their bones and ashes, and their distant, alien descendants who still populate the world

The timing of this launch couldn't be better to remind us of how small and precious this planet is

oh wow I'm fully gone

I am getting way more emotional than I expected to.

We're going back, people.

One of the astronauts said "I can see a beautiful moonrise, and we're heading right at it."

The NASA announcer described this as him having "confirmed he had visual on their destination."

Ha! Mine suggests everyone's already on holiday!

When Baz Luhrman had the guns say "sword" on the side in Romeo + Juliet, that was the best choice that has been made in any modern adaptation ever.

My dog looks like a medieval drawing of a lion

Principality of Salm-Salm, with your coat of arms like viewing an Independent article without adblock

Noooooooo

"In some passage, which I cannot find at the moment,"

lmao i love that authors used to just be able to do this

Thanks for such a lovely review!

Every single person in the UK will think this is something else for a split second

I'm so pleased you enjoyed it Neil! Thank you for taking the time to tell me 💚

Treat yourself and your friends. One of the most gripping and delightful books I've ever read.* An immersive experience into 18th century London as well as a beautiful page turner. I loved it from start to finish and want to read it all again. *Well, audio book which is just outstandingly performed.

Great news!
From now until 20th of Feb, you can pre-order The Art of a Lie in paperback for 25% off at Waterstones - just use the code FEB26 💚
"Brilliantly plotted, brilliantly written, endlessly twisty and inventive" - The Sunday Times
www.waterstones.com/author/laura...

Wow, that's amazing Marie. Can't wait to read it x

He looks as though he's been caught cooking and also as if he mistakenly believes cooking to be illegal

Young Anton Chekhov, the playwright, looking super hot in his 20s

Wait, THIS is young Anton Chekhov? This? Good lord. Let that gun go off, daddy

💙

This is my favourite of all Laura’s books (though I haven’t yet read the most recent - saving it for my holiday!)