LIs

Detective stories for 9+ have boomed in the past decade, thanks to Robin Stevens’ bestselling Murder Most Unladylike series. They’ve also evolved from Enid Blyton-style cosiness to noir lite: these are morally complex stories, in which deadly violence has a lingering emotional impact. Young readers who devour Fleur Hitchcock’s Murder at Snowfall or Sharna Jackson’s High-Rise Mystery display an appetite both for satisfying puzzles and carefully gauged realism.Lis Jardine’s first novel is a compelling addition to the new…

Born in Sweden in 1986, Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson is better known as singer and songwriter Lykke Li. She released her first album, Youth Novels, in 2008, and is celebrated for her gothic take on electro-pop and heartbreak, notably 2014’s I Never Learn and 2018’s So Sad So Sexy. Her music has soundtracked films including Twilight and The Fault in Our Stars; she has also acted in the crime thriller Tommy and Terrence Malick’s Song to Song. She released her fifth album, Eyeye, in May this year; a vinyl reissue of the album…