Federal Theatre Project in the late 1930s fused entertainment and news in productions seen by a quarter of the US population

Author James Kaplan captures a remarkable time when some of the greatest art of the 20th century was being made

Reviews: Prom Mom by Laura Lippman; Someone You Trust by Rachel Ryan; A Lesson in Malice by Catherine Kirwan; The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan; Standing in the Shadows by Peter Robinson

Beware The Woman; Don’t Look Back; No One Saw A Thing; The Monk; and Italian Rules

Brief reviews of Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent and The Close by Jane Casey

Featuring Needless Alley by Natalie Marlow; A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley; Age of Vice of by Deepti Kapoor; The Mysterious Case of Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett; and The Second Stranger by Martin Griffin

Irish writers kept the home fires burning steadily throughout the year with absorbing new titles

Including The Book of the Most Precious Substance; Vera Kelly Lost and Found; Bleeding Heart Yard; and Black is the Night

Declan Hughes on new works by Arlene Hunt; John Connolly; Catherine Ryan Howard; EV Kelly; and Ferdinand von Schirach

A distinctively English affair defined by a vivid portrait of the UK music scene in the early 1970s

The Island of Lost Girls, A Season in Exile, Birthday Girl, Crookedwood, The Family Remains

New titles by Nicola Upson, Lisa Lutz, Mick Herron, Jo Spain and Christobel Kent

Declan Hughes on Laura Lippman, Catriona Ward, Catherine Kirwan, Sharon Dempsey and Joe Ide

New books by Alison Gaylin, WC Ryan, Janice Hallet, Stephen Spotswood and Carla Valentine

Plus thrills from Nicci French, Elly Griffiths, John Banville and Otto Penzler