In this week's podcast we look at the latest in crime fiction, and ask why – despite being one of the most popular genres all over the world – it is still not taken seriously as literature.
Tom Rob Smith was the first crime writer to make it on to the Booker longlist, with his 2007 novel Child 44. He talks about his latest novel, The Farm, set in what is currently the genre's most popular destination: Scandinavia. He explains the deeply personal reasons for heading to Sweden and for telling this unnerving story of madness and abuse.
Scandi-crime may be getting all the headlines, but authors are writing compelling crime fiction all over the world. The investigator Marc Pastor joins us to talk about his latest novel – the first to be translated into English – and how he's putting a new sub-genre on the map: Barcelona Gothic.
Plus we talk to the novelist and critic Laura Wilson about the novels it would be a crime not to read this spring
Reading list
The Farm by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster)
Barcelona Shadows by Marc Pastor (Pushkin Press)
