Some New Reviews

New Reviews:

Mike Ripley covers two big hitters in his column this month, reviewing The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters, Exit Music by Ian Rankin and Murdering Americans by Ruth Dudley Edwards; Laura Root finds Gianrico Carofiglio's first standalone novel The Past is a Foreign Country as good as his Guido Guerrieri series; Maxine Clarke hopes that Frank Elder will return someday after reading John Harvey's Darkness and Light and Geoff Jones enjoyed Tripper by Ken McCoy.

The New Releases pages have been updated.

Last chance to enter September's competition:

Faber have kindly donated five signed copies of Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio to Euro Crime website and blog visitors. There are no geographical restrictions and the closing date is today.

Just answer the following simple question and email the correct answer and your postal address to karen@eurocrime.co.uk putting 'Competition Gregorio blog' in the subject line. Please note only one entry per household will be entered in the draw.

Which of these Faber titles won the 2007 Edgar for Best Novel?

a) A Gentle Axe by R N Morris
b) Critique of Criminal Reason by Michael Gregorio
c) The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

Spartapuss update

Back in April I mentioned the Spartapuss series set in "an ancient Rome ruled by cats". The author has recently posted the following comment on that post:

Hi all - hope you do enjoy my books - I had a great time writing them and I hope that shines through. I can't claim to be a huge expert in the history - just an interested amateur. My two main sources were Tacitus and Suetonious - which are the big hitters of Julio Clawdian history. Like Suetonious I guess that I don't want to let history get in the way of a good story! If these books can get kids into history (and the classics) in a fun way then that can't be a bad thing.

I'm always really interested in reader feedback so do feel free to drop me a line via the mogzilla website www.mogzilla.co.uk. I'm currently working on the fourth in the series - which is called Boudicat. But lots of research needed... better get back to it.
All the best

Robin

Unshelved FAQ T-shirts

I mentioned on Friday last week's Unshelved strip and when can I buy the t-shirt. Well they're coming soon. Previews are up on the Unshelved blog.

Mike Ripley's Column & Leo Malet

Mike Ripley's latest 'Getting Away With Murder' column is now online at Shots. In it he mentions the French writer Leo Malet. I'll be uploading Malet's bibliography to the Euro Crime website shortly. The nine titles available in English were printed in the 1990s and are fairly scarce, however it appears that Macmillan are reprinting one of them next year: 'Neck and Neck at La Nation', is due out in December 2008 and I believe this to be a reprint of 'Death of a Marseilles Man'.

This Week's 'Unshelved' Strip

Wading through all the junk emails on my return from our French holiday, slightly early due to a poorly member of our cat family, this week's Unshelved strip made me chuckle.

It starts here with Monday's and just click through to today's. Now where can I order one of those T-shirts...?

Paris Noir

Paris Noir will be available from the 1st November. From the Serpent's Tail website:

Paris Noir is a collection of new stories about the dark side of Paris, with contributions by leading French, British and American authors who have all either lived or spent a significant amount of time in Paris. Edited by Maxim Jakubowski, the stories range from quietly menacing to spectacularly violent, and include contributions from some of the most famous crime writers from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the other side of the Channel.

Contributors:
Cara Black, Jerome Charyn, Stella Duffy, Barry Gifford, Sparkle Hayter, John Harvey, Maxim Jakubowski, Jake Lamar, Dominique Manotti, Michael Moorcock, Jim Nisbet, Jean-Hughes Oppel, Scott Phillips, Romain Slocombe, Jason Starr, Dominique Sylvain, Marc Villard, John Williams.

Keeping dry

Just a quick note from a French cybercafe, trying to avoid the showers today. Still reading The Devil's Star - highly recommended. Au revoir for now...

New Reviews

The reviews are early again this week but this time I'm going to be away for two weeks. I hope to get some reviews and blog posts up soon-ish after my return in October.

New Reviews:

I love the witty Sergeant Studer series written by Friedrich Glauser, the latest to be translated, is The Chinaman; Reviewer Geoff Jones says that Robert Goddard shows no sign of running out of steam in his nineteenth novel Name to a Face; after reading Norman Price's glowing review of this month's competition prize, Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio do enter the competition detailed below and Maxine Clarke reviews Dominique Manotti's first novel, Rough Trade, giving her reasons why she found it "an excellent crime novel".

September's competition:

Faber have kindly donated five signed copies of Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio to Euro Crime website and blog visitors. There are no geographical restrictions and the closing date is 30 September 2007

Just answer the following simple question and email the correct answer and your postal address to karen@eurocrime.co.uk putting 'Competition Gregorio blog' in the subject line. Please note only one entry per household will be entered in the draw.

Which of these Faber titles won the 2007 Edgar for Best Novel?

a) A Gentle Axe by R N Morris
b) Critique of Criminal Reason by Michael Gregorio
c) The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

Crime Express, first wave

I've mentioned Five Leaves Publishing a couple of times on the blog and I recently received this press release which has more details on the coming titles which include the return of Resnick, in John Harvey's 'Trouble in Mind'.

Five Leaves Publications, a small independent in Nottingham, is launching a new imprint, Crime Express, which comprises short novellas by well-known crime writers.

The first three books – launched in early October – are by John Harvey, Stephen Booth and Rod Duncan. John Harvey and Stephen Booth are two of Britain’s best selling crime writers, while Rod Duncan’s trilogy of Leicester inner-city crime stories has build a growing reputation. John Harvey won the Crime Writers Association Cartier Diamond Dagger earlier this year.

All the books are published in a uniform series format, as flapped paperbacks, 160mm x 110mm and retail at £4.99.

Ross Bradshaw of Five Leaves said “I’ve always been attracted to the ‘long short story’ and I’ve been thinking of a way of publishing them for years. This smaller format - 80-96 pages – is big enough to create a spine, and I’ve always liked flapped paperbacks!” He continued “I’m pleased to start the series with three great writers, all of whom I know from the region.”

The Stephen Booth book features a new story by his main characters, D.C. Ben Cooper and D.S. Diane Fry; John Harvey engineers a meeting of two of his main characters, Charlie Resnick and Jack Kiley while Rod Duncan explores the world of stage psychics.

Five Leaves plan to publish three volumes a year in the series, with Nicola Monaghan (winner of the Betty Trask award for her first novel) and Claire Littleford included in the next batch. In 2009 the series expands to include non-fiction, the first being on the films of Raymond Chandler novels.

Crime Express’ first books will be available from 1st October:

John Harvey Trouble in Mind 978 1 905512 25 6

Stephen Booth: Claws 978 1 905512 24 9

Rod Duncan: The Mentalist 978 1 905512 26 3

Le Serpent uncoils in the UK

French thriller, The Serpent, opens in the UK on 14th September.

Opportunistic thug Plender (Clovis Cornillac) has a near-failsafe money-making system. Identify a weak, wealthy, married target. Send in a gorgeous girl. Get photos. Demand payment. But when Plender catches up with an old schoolmate made good, fashion photographer Vincent (Yvan Attal), the scale of his operation suddenly expands - as does the extent of the damage done. Because the two men have a history, and - at least the way Plender sees it - there's a considerable debt to be paid... Based on the British novel Plender, by Ted Lewis, this dark-hued tale of blackmail, guilt and vengeance is as sinuous and twisty as its title suggests.(taken from the Edinburgh festival website)

Visit the official French website and click on 'Bande Annonce' to watch the trailer. You can also read an interview with one of the stars, Olga Kurylenko, here.

Latest news from Bitter Lemon Press

From Bitter Lemon Press' September newsletter:

Location work has begun on the filming of Tonino Benacquista’s bestselling novel Holy Smoke, which we published in 2004. The film features Aaron Stanford (X-Men, Live Free or Die) in the lead role and features Anouk Aimée and Ben Gazzara. It is directed by Maxime Alexandre. http://www.holymoney-movie.com/

Bitter Lemon has acquired the rights to the Italian bestseller Blackout by Gianluca Morozzi. Set in Bologna in mid-August, it’s a thriller about three people trapped in a lift for twelve hours. A waitress still in her Lara Croft uniform, a punk and a serial killer. The novel will be out in English in June 2008. Blackout is soon to be a Hollywood film starring Amber Tamblyn (Grudge, Stephanie Daley) and Aidan Gillen (Mojo and The Wire) and directed by Mexico’s Rigoberto Castaneda.

The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr is out this month (for more information click here). Cora Bender killed a man on a sunny summer afternoon by the lake and in full view of her family and friends. Why? What could have caused this quiet, lovable young mother to stab a stranger in the throat, again and again, until she was pulled off his body? A psychological thriller by Germany’s Patricia Highsmith.

Early reviews this week

This week's reviews are a bit early but I'm going to be away for a few days. I hope you enjoy reading the following:

Norman Price reviews The Fugitive by Massimo Carlotto which is the book Carlotto wrote about his life as a man on the run and his wrongful imprisonment; Fiona Walker adds K O Dahl to her list of Scandinavian authors after reading The Fourth Man; Maxine Clarke says if you go with the flow on some of the plot devices, then Hurting Distance by Sophie Hannah is a gripping thriller and I was transfixed by The Exception by Christian Jungersen, a masterful piece of writing.

September's competition:

Faber have kindly donated five signed copies of Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio to Euro Crime website and blog visitors. There are no geographical restrictions and the closing date is 30 September 2007

Just answer the following simple question and email the correct answer and your postal address to karen@eurocrime.co.uk putting 'Competition Gregorio blog' in the subject line. Please note only one entry per household will be entered in the draw.

Which of these Faber titles won the 2007 Edgar for Best Novel?

a) A Gentle Axe by R N Morris
b) Critique of Criminal Reason by Michael Gregorio
c) The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

Old Street Publishing - Carofiglio & Downing

Old Street Publishing is a fairly new operation but they've managed to secure Euro Crime favourite Gianrico Carofiglio's non Guido Guerrieri book, The Past is a Foreign Country, which is now available from all good bookshops...

Synopsis: 1989, Bari, southern Italy. Giorgio is 22 years old, a model student, living a conventional middle-class life. Francesco is a slightly older fellow student - but far from a model one - who exerts a strange fascination over men and women alike. Giorgio is only vaguely aware of Francesco until one evening their paths cross definitively and Giorgio is sucked into Francesco’s world, in a kind of Faustian pact.

Giorgio becomes Francesco’s pupil and learns to cheat at cards. In return, he will get lots of money, sexual adventures, luxury. Their gambling exploits take them from luxurious villas to low dives, their victims ranging from rich industrialists to human flotsam.

Giorgio enters a world where his own image of himself starts to fragment, revealing someone he no longer recognizes: someone who both scares and attracts him. In parallel, we are given the story of the artistically inclined Lieutenant Chiti of the carabinieri who is investigating a series of brutal rapes in Bari. A shocking dénouement draws together the two strands of the story in a wholly unexpected way and brings a catharsis for both Giorgio and Lieutenant Chiti.

Read an extract here and look out for the Euro Crime review, coming soon.

As well as Carofiglio, Euro Crime readers may also be interested in David Downing's series. The first part, Zoo Station, came out in March and the follow-up, Silesian Station, will be out in March 2008.

Synopsis: Englishman John Russell is a member of the foreign press corps in Berlin and a first hand witness to the brutal machinations of Hitler and the Nazi party in the build up to war during the early months of 1939. Unlike many of his colleagues, Russel wishes to remain in Berlin for as long as possible to be close to Effi, his glamorous actress girlfriend, and above all to Paul, his eleven year old son who lives with his estranged German wife.

When an old acquaintance turns up at his lodging home, Russell's life begins to change. Gradually he is persuaded by a combination of threats, financial need and appeals to his conscience to become a spy - first for the Soviet Union and then, simultaneously, for the British.

The grimness, the constant fear and the skin deep glitter of pre war Berlin - alleviated by atmospheric excursions to Prague, Danzig, London and the Baltic seashore - form a rich backdrop as Russell, a reluctant hero and saviour for some, treads along ever narrowing lines between the Russians, the British and the Gestapo.

Again you can read an extract here.

First Sheep and Now Pigs...

First there was Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann in which the lead detective is sheep Miss Maple and today's Book2Book reports on The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke:

Scott Pack at The Friday Project has signed The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke.

Harry Pigg is the only surviving brother from the Big Bad Wolf attack and runs a down-at-heel private detective agency. His luck seems to have turned when he is hired by local bigshot Aladdin to track down a stolen lamp, only things aren't quite as they seem.

Pack says 'All of us at The Friday Project loved Bob's book the moment we saw it. He is an extremely funny writer and Harry Pigg is a wonderful character who we hope to see for many more books to come. Imagine Hans Christian Andersen rewritten by Raymond Chandler.'

The Third Pig Detective Agency will be published in autumn 2008. The Friday Project have world rights.

For more information please contact scott@thefridayproject.co.uk.

http://www.thefridayproject.co.uk

This might be a children's book but that doesn't mean we adults can't take a gander...In the meantime there's Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series to be getting on with: The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear, so far.

and more from Colin Cotterill

From today's Publisher's Lunch:

FICTION
Mystery/Crime
Colin Cotterill's sixth and seventh "Dr. Siri" novels, featuring the septuagenarian Laotian state coroner introduced in THE CORONER'S LUNCH, to Laura Hruska at Soho Crime, by Richard Curtis of Richard Curtis Associates (NA).

Foreign rights to the series to Albin Michel in France, Quercus in the UK; Text Publishing in Australia; Fanucci Editore in Italy; Sony Magazines in Japan; and Goldmann in Germany, by Danny Baror of Baror International.

Canadian rights to Knopf Canada, by Soho Crime.

This refers to the sixth and seventh titles. There's four titles already out there, though we're lagging behind a bit in the UK, but Quercus are helping us to catch up. So what's the fifth?

Maxine Clarke recently reviewed for Euro Crime, the first in the series, The Coroner's Lunch and wrote:

I was lost in admiration at this wonderful book: for the convincing and sympathetic portrait of a man and his little circle of friends and their lives; and for the exciting and clever dramas that, in the end, come to a completely satisfying conclusion, even solving a mystery very personal to Siri himself as well as making neat, barbed little points about how the regime is undermining any semblance of the values its constant propaganda asserts.

Colin Cotterill is an extremely talented author who, by his lightness of touch and his simple, direct writing style, draws the reader in totally to a complex, many-layered world. The book is so full of beautiful little touches and nuances that you cannot fail to be won over. I'm very glad indeed I read this superb book, and I urge you to do so as well.

More Jan Fabel books to come

Good news for fans of Craig Russell's Jan Fabel series. Book2Book reports the following deal:

Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann is delighted to announce the sale of UK rights in the books 4, 5 and 6 in Craig Russell's Hamburg-based Detective Jan Fabel series to Paul Sidey at Hutchinson in a significant deal.

The series so far comprises BLOOD EAGLE, 2005; BROTHER GRIMM, 2006; ETERNAL, 2007. The first book in the new contract, THE CARNIVAL MASTER, will be published in 2008.

BROTHER GRIMM was shortlisted by the Crime Writers' Association for the 2007 Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger.

'I was so pleased when Craig was shortlisted. He has created a complex and original character in his detective hero, Jan Fabel. And the books are simply going from strength to strength.'

The series has been sold to 21 languages to date, achieving bestseller status, most notably in Germany where Craig has made numerous public appearances and been awarded the highly prestigious Polizeistern - the Police Star – presented by the Chief of Police and the Hamburg government's Interior Minister.

Luebbe have already contracted German rights in these titles and more territories are expected to follow in the run-up to and during the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Competition details

Well I can't seem to add files to my website at the moment. Delete fine, add no which is a bit of a pain and I hope 'they' can fix this tomorrow. In the meantime, here's how to enter the competition:

Faber have kindly donated five signed copies of Days of Atonement by Michael Gregorio to Euro Crime website and blog visitors. There are no geographical restrictions and the closing date is 30 September 2007

Just answer the following simple question and email the correct answer and your postal address to karen@eurocrime.co.uk putting 'Competition Gregorio blog' in the subject line. Please note only one entry per household will be entered in the draw.

Which of these Faber titles won the 2007 Edgar for Best Novel?

a) A Gentle Axe by R N Morris

b) Critique of Criminal Reason by Michael Gregorio

c) The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

Competition

There's currently an error with my competition page. I hope to fix it later on tonight when I get back from work. Do try again later!

New translated authors to look out for in 2008 (1)

The number of European authors being translated into English continues apace. The Bookseller reports on a new acquisition by Arcadia:

Blue-Water Eyes, the first instalment in Domingo Villar’s Inspector Caldas mystery series, will be published in March 2008, with a translation by Martín Schifino. World English rights were acquired from Joachim De Nys at Argentine agency Guillermo Schavelzon & Asociados. Set in the author’s native Galicia, Blue-Water Eyes has Caldas investigating the death of a young saxophonist.

In fact the synopsis is now on the Arcadia site, where you can also see the cover:

Amid the aroma of the sea and the Galician pines, a young saxophonist is found dead in his swanky flat overlooking the beach. The murder seems to have taken place after a sexual encounter with a lover: there are two glasses filled with whiskey in the living room, and the dead man, Luis Reigosa, is tied by the wrists to the headboard of the bed. But the way he was killed makes it impossible to obtain any more clues about his activities that night: his thighs, stomach and groin are horribly burned, and his genitals look hideously like a toasted cashew. The unusually cold-blooded and cruel murder is assigned to Leo Caldas, a disheartened police inspector still searching for his place in the world. The case unfolds between inviting nights at the jazz clubs and the tense, affected atmosphere of upper class Vigo.

Crime Time goes digital

The latest issue of Crime Time magazine, no. 51, is now available to download as a pdf or to view 'page by page' or you can order a print on demand copy at a very reasonable tariff. This is what it says on their website:

Crime Time 51 - Time for a Change
After 50 glorious issues Crime Time Magazine is leaping feet first into the era of instant digital access.
No more waiting anxiously on your doorstep for that postman.
And no more charges.
To read Crime Time 51 straightaway you can download the full, unexpurgated version (10mb) as a pdf file here: DOWNLOAD PDF

Or, view it in a 'flippable' page by page format here!: VIEW PAGE BY PAGE
(note this is still in beta testing stage so may well improve over time)

Of course you may still crave a hard copy (and why not?) If so, you can still order copies from us - just follow this link to our sister site bookshop London Books, and we will print to order. Individual copies will cost £5 inc P&P for the UK, £7 inc P&P for the rest of the world: ORDER CRIME TIME 51

Competition winners for August

Here are the winners of August's Euro Crime competitions (and the correct answers):

1. GodSword by Emerson Cole, Sins of the Fathers by Sally Spencer and Fallen Idols by Neil White

a) What is the name of Emerson Cole's follow up to GodSword?
Nemesis Circle
b) What is the name of book 17 in the Charlie Woodend series by Sally Spencer?
Dangerous Games
c) What is the name of the footballer victim (referred to in the above synopsis) in Fallen Idols by Neil White?
Henri Dumas

Winners:

Margaret Altunel
Joanne Griffiths
Sallyanne Rose
Nicole Terbach
Pippa Tolfts

2. Vintage Crime Classic Twins

Which one of the following authors wrote a biography of Patricia Highsmith?:
c) Andrew Wilson

Winners:

Adrian Bold
Spencer Broadley
Alex Cawley
Sheila Reavy


Enter this month's competition here.

New Reviews & a New Competition

Here are this week's new reviews and details of this month's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Mike Ripley's latest crime file covers 'Second Violin' by John Lawton, 'No Human Enemy' by John Gardner, 'Tokyo Year Zero' by David Peace and 'The Last Testament' by Sam Bourne;

Maxine Clarke reviews the paperback of Never End by Ake Edwardson which she enjoys despite it sagging in the middle;

I enjoyed one of Quercus's latest offerings - Die With Me by Elena Forbes a police procedural set in the London suburb of Barnes;

Sunnie Gill is disappointed with One Man and His Bomb by H R F Keating which she finds an unconvincing police procedural with poor characterisation

and Fiona Walker gives the low down on the latest standalone from the great Henning Mankell - Kennedy's Brain


Current Competition (closing date 30 September):

Win one of five copies of 'Days of Atonement' by Michael Gregorio (open to everyone)