Crimespree Magazine

Jess Kidd/Murder at the Spirit Lounge

Nora Breen Investigates #2

Atria Books/June 16, 2026

Jess Kidd’s Murder at the Spirit Lounge

A cop’s wife is murdered—and the system investigates itself.

Beth Beckett was pregnant when she was stabbed to death in her own kitchen. Days earlier, she’d been confronted at a protest. Now the obvious suspe...

Harrogate International Festivals has announced the shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award for new UK and Irish writers. The winner will be revealed on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Thursday 23 July.

The shortlist for this year’s McDermid Debut Award, named in recognition of world-famous crime writer Val McDermid, showcases ...

Growing up in the Soviet era, in a family of space engineers, meant imagination was part of my everyday life, though not always in the way people might expect. Our home was filled with books and magazines about space exploration, stories about black holes, and even a wall-sized map of our galaxy with the names of stars and planets marked across it. My parents’ world was a...

When I was 38, I had a sneeze that changed my life.

A sudden explosion of pain tore through my abdomen, like I’d been shot. A cyst on my kidney had burst. Soon after, I learned I had polycystic kidney disease, caused by a genetic defect I never knew I carried. It was a one-way ticket to eventual kidney failure. There was no cure.

I had no time for this...