Also Published As...

After yesterday's post which announced the retitling of Arne Dahl's Misterioso (a title suitable for everywhere else it seems from the covers on his website) as The Blinded Man, I thought I'd have a look at what else has been retitled in the last couple of years or so. Usually the UK title is first with the US title in brackets, but not always.

Published in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (so far)

Jussi Adler-Olsen - Mercy (apa The Keeper of Lost Causes) 2011
Sam Barone - Quest for Honour (apa Conflict of Empires) 2010
Quentin Bates - Frozen Out (apa Frozen Assets) 2011
M C Beaton - Death of a Chimney Sweep (apa Death of a Sweep) 2011
Mark Billingham - Good as Dead (apa The Demands) 2011
Gyles Brandreth - Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (apa Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders) 2010
Howard Cunnell - The Sea on Fire (apa Marine Boy) 2012
Arne Dahl - Misterioso (apa The Blinded Man) 2011
Ruth/R S Downie - Ruso and the River of Darkness (apa Caveat Emptor) 2010
Jeremy Duns - Free Country (apa Song of Treason) 2010 (both UK titles)
Sam Eastland - The Red Coffin (apa Shadow Pass) 2011
Ariana Franklin - A Murderous Procession (apa The Assassin's Prayer (UK)) 2010
Nicci French - Complicit (apa The Other Side of the Door) 2010
Sophie Hannah - Lasting Damage (apa The Other Woman's House) 2011
Diane Janes - Why Don't You Come for Me? (apa Why Didn't You Come For Me?) 2011
Mons Kallentoft - Midwinter Sacrifice (apa Midwinter Blood) 2011
Erin Kelly -The Sick Rose (apa The Dark Rose) 2011
Christobel Kent - A Fine and Private Place (apa Murder in Tuscany) 2010
Tom Knox - Bible of the Dead (apa The Lost Goddess) 2011
Camilla Lackberg - The Gallows Bird (apa The Stranger) 2011 (both UK titles)
Simon Lelic - Rupture (apa A Thousand Cuts) 2010
Liza Marklund - Last Will (apa Nobel's Last Will (UK)) 2012
Mark Mills - House of the Hanged (apa House of the Hunted) 2011
Graham Moore - The Sherlockian (apa The Holmes Affair) 2010
Anne Perry - Betrayal at Lisson Grove (apa Treason at Lisson Grove) 2010
William Ryan The Bloody Meadow (apa The Darkening Field) 2011
Lynn Shepherd - Tom-All-Alone's (apa The Solitary House) 2012
Jeffrey Siger - Prey on Patmos (apa An Aegean Prophecy (UK)) 2011
Frank Tallis - Deadly Communion (apa Vienna Twilight) 2010
Felicity Young A Dissection of Murder (apa The Anatomy of Death) 2012
Juli Zeh - Dark Matter (apa In Free Fall) 2010

Sometimes the changes are minor, and you wonder why bother, and other times the title's very different.

Publishing Deal - Arne Dahl

In the "how did I miss this!" category, belated news of a UK publishing deal for Swedish author Arne Dahl. From The Bookseller:

Harvill Secker has acquired two books by Swedish crime writer Arne Dahl, with senior crime editor Alison Hennessey making her first signing in her new role.

Hennessey bought UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in the titles, both from Dahl's Intercrime series. Harvill Secker plans to publish the first book, The Blinded Man, as a Vintage paperback in July 2012, and the second, Bad Blood, in summer 2013.

The Blinded Man kicks off the series which follows an elite team of detectives assembled to investigate international violent crime, with Bad Blood revolving around an American serial killer on the loose in Sweden.

Hennessey said: "I am delighted to be bringing Arne Dahl's critically acclaimed Intercrime series to Harvill Secker as my first acquisition; with clever plotting and brilliant characterisation that will appeal to readers of Henning Mankell and fans of 'The Wire' alike..."

Dahl is already published in the US, with Misterioso, translated by Tiina Nunnally published last July. I am assuming that either The Blinded Man or Bad Blood is the same book as Misterioso. My notes say that "Misterioso was the second published in Swedish, but chronologically the first, the one in which a team of misfit police officers are pulled together to form a new investigative unit" which makes me none the wiser, so if anyone can shed any light I'd appreciate it.

Arne Dahl is on twitter: @arne_dahl

New Reviews: Cato, Cordy, Enger, Hochgatterer, Learner, Nickson, Smith, van der Vlugt, Wallace

As well as reading the 9 new reviews, if you haven't already, do enter the competition which closes on 31st: win Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (no geographical restrictions).

Here are this week's reviews:

Lizzie Hayes reviews Joyce Cato's, A Fatal Fall of Snow the second in this culinary series and which is set at Christmas;

Susan White reviews The Colour of Death by Michael Cordy which is set in the US and covers synaesthesia and cults;

Lynn Harvey reviews Thomas Enger's Burned, tr. Charlotte Barslund now out in paperback, and she's keen to read the sequel;

Maxine Clarke reviews the follow-up to The Sweetness of Life by Paulus Hochgatterer, The Mattress House, tr. Jamie Bulloch (do read Maxine's review but please do not read the synopsis on book-selling websites which give far too much away);

Terry Halligan reviews T S Learner's The Map, a historical quest thriller set in Europe;

Michelle Peckham reviews Chris Nickson's Cold Cruel Winter now out in trade paperback (look out for February's competition sponsored by this author);

Laura Root reviews the final part of Tom Rob Smith's USSR trilogy, Agent 6;

Rich Westwood reviews Simone van der Vlugt's Shadow Sister, tr. Michele Hutchinson a Dutch suspense thriller

and Amanda Gillies reviews political thriller Killing the Messenger by Christopher Wallace.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Joyce Cato and Anya Lipska have been added to these pages this week.

New Non-Fiction guides to European Crime Fiction

There are not one but two new guides to European crime writing published this month. The first is Barry Forshaw's very readable guide to Scandinavian crime fiction: Death in a Cold Climate. I received a proof copy of this and it's one I keep dipping in to, and I particularly like the insights offered by the translators

The other book, which has just been brought to my attention, and which should be out in a few days is The Dragon Tattoo and Its Long Tail: The New Wave of European Crime Fiction in America by David Geherin.

Here are the covers and official blurbs:

Death in a Cold Climate is a celebration and analysis of Scandinavian crime fiction, one of the most successful literary genres. Barry Forshaw, the UK's principal expert on crime fiction, discusses books, films and TV adaptations, from Sjowall and Wahloo's influential Martin Beck series through Henning Mankell's Wallander to Stieg Larsson's demolition of the Swedish Social Democratic ideal in the publishing phenomenon The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In intelligent but accessible fashion, the book examines the massive commercial appeal of the field along with Nordic cultural differences from Iceland to Denmark. Including unique interview material with writers, publishers and translators, this is the perfect reader's guide to the hottest strand of crime fiction today, examined both as a literary form and as an index to the societies it reflects. Includes Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, Jo Nesbo, Hakan Nesser, Karin Fossum, Camilla Lackberg, Liza Marklund, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Arnaldur Indridason, Roslund & Hellstrom and many others.


The enormous popularity of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy has raised awareness of other contemporary European authors of crime fiction. As a result, several of these novelists now reach a receptive American audience, eager for fresh perspectives in the genre. This critical text offers an introduction to current European crime writing by exploring ten of the best new crime and mystery authors from Sweden (Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell), Norway (Karin Fossum and Jo Nesbo), Iceland (Arnaldur Indridason), Italy (Andrea Camilleri), France (Fred Vargas), Scotland (Denise Mina and Philip Kerr), and Ireland (Ken Bruen) who are reshaping the landscape of the modern crime novel.

Favourite Discoveries 2011 (10)

The final instalment of favourite discoveries of 2011 comes from Maxine Clarke who has chosen a tv series and a book.

Maxine Clarke's Favourite Discoveries of 2011

I think my two crime fiction discoveries of the year have been The Killing (though I prefer the straight translation of Forbrydelsen, The Crime) Danish TV series and the Norwegian novel Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst.

The Killing (series 1) was compelling and tense viewing. For me, the best thing about it was the character of Sarah Lund because at last here is a female TV detective who is a real person, not forced into any of the usual gender cliches that the medium seems to insist upon (and why I rarely watch TV drama). The obsessed personality of Sarah Lund as portrayed by Sofie Gråbøl reminded me of the last time I saw a filmed crime drama that had that same "something special" about the protagonist -- that was William Peterson's portrayal of Will Graham in the 1986 film Manhunter, from Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. That film did not do well at the box office but who could forget the portrayal of the man who was prepared to give up everything in order to solve the crime? Sarah Lund as portrayed by Gråbøl has that same kind of focused, intense seriousness, indeed, the script takes her further than the Graham character in failing to provide a "happy ending", even better (as we can look forward to more stories about this amazing woman). There were aspects to the series that I did not like so much, but Sarah Lund and her jumper are, for me, as close to perfection as crime fiction can get.

The book discovery of the year for me was Dregs by Jorn Lier Horst translated by Anne Bruce. It may not be my favourite book of the year or the best crime novel ever written, but these days when it is so hard to find a straight-down-the-line, engaging, reliable police-procedural series - tough-minded but with a social conscience - this book was like a gift from heaven.

From the publisher's blurb:

Meet Chief Inspector William Wisting, an experienced policeman who is familiar with the dark side of human nature. He lives in challenging times for the Norwegian police force, meeting them with integrity and humanity, and a fragile belief that he can play a part in creating a better world.

Dregs is the sixth novel in a planned series of ten. The author is a retired Norwegian policeman whose role model (crime fiction-wise) is Henning Mankell and his Wallander series. The author says: "I would like to be a police officer like Wallander, an upright and good detective who led the work on major cases. A policeman with a conscience, integrity and humanity and an involvement in his community beyond the individual, a true commitment to my fellow human beings.

In Dregs I think he has succeeded in this and, vitally, has created a very readable story and interesting characters. More about this author and his books can be found in this wonderful interview at the Cyprus Well website.

Publishing Deal - Hilary Bonner

A new publishing deal for Hilary Bonner has been announced. From The Bookseller:

Pan Macmillan has acquired two psychological thrillers by Hilary Bonner.

Publishing director Wayne Brookes bought world rights for The Cruellest Game and an as-yet-untitled novel. Pan Macmillan plans to publish the first title in 2013.

The Cruellest Game follows an apparently perfect family, tracing the "calamitous sequence of events" which follow "unexpected revelations of lies and duplicity".

Sarah Death on Book Cafe

If you're a visitor to the FriendFeed Crime and Mystery Room (and if not do come along) then you'll have heard about this a few days ago.

I downloaded the podcast after Maxine at Petrona had mentioned it but only got round to listening to it last night.

16 January 2012
Jo Nesbø says that Per Wahlöö was the 'godfather of Scandinavian crime writing', creating the archetypical disillusioned, troubled but somehow dedicated detective now familiar to us from the work of Steig Larsson, Henning Mankell and Nesbø himself. Sarah Death, the translator of two new editions of Wahlöö's classic crime novels, explains why now's the time to discover him for ourselves.

Sarah Death, editor of Swedish Book Review, who as well as retranslating Per Wahlöö's Murder on the Thirty-first Floor and The Steel Spring is also working on Kristina Ohlsson's series, the first of which Unwanted was published in English last September.

In the 10 minute interview which begins the podcast, as well as discussing the Wahlöö books, Sarah suggests a refresh in translation of the Martin Beck series might not go amiss and also recommends Hakan Nesser and Lars Kepler. If you want further reading suggestions, have a look through the Euro Crime list of Swedish authors, many of whose books are reviewed on the site.

There is a little more information on the Per Wahlöö retranslations here.

To get the podcast - as well as subscribing through iTunes you can download the podcast here or you can listen again (for 3 more days only) here.

Riverside Lady - Cover Theme

Yes, the mysterious lady walking along the Thames (presumably) gets another outing. This time she's on the upcoming Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd.

Other covers that she's appeared on and similar ones (that I know about) are shown below.