Find Bond

The new trailer for Quantum of Solace is up and running on the BBC website:

The trailer begins with Mr White, a villainous character from the previous Bond film Casino Royale, being interrogated by Bond.

This early sequence appears to initiate a globe-trotting adventure as Craig's character embarks on an revenge mission against the wishes of his superiors.

Elaborate action sequences involving cars, boats and planes are intercut with more intimate scenes involving Bond's various love interests.

There is also a brief shot of Craig's now famous bare torso, as well as snippets of dialogue from Dame Judi Dench as 007's boss M.

The trailer plus several other videos and much more can be found at the Quantum of Solace website.

Throckmorton Literary Festival - crime events

Well, other than Redditch having a literary festival which seems very unlikely, this one is the closest I'll find to my home. The Throckmorton Literary Festival held in Coughton Court (Warwickshire) is a scant 6 miles away and as I'm going to be on leave, but not going away, I'm hoping to avail of a few sessions. The crime events are:

19th September

2pm
Murder for fun and profit
featuring crime writers Jessica Mann,
Natasha Cooper, Laura Wilson &
Andrew Taylor

3.30pm
The Medieval Murderers
featuring crime writers
Michael Jecks, Bernard
Knight & Philip Gooden

20th September

10.30am RS Downie
The ‘Harrison Ford’ of ancient Rome. Gaius
Petreius Ruso is back!

Other notables include Kate Adie, Carol Thatcher and Alison Weir. Download the programme, here.

New Reviews: Campbell, Ellory, Eriksson, Fossum, Liang and Morley

Every week six new reviews are added to the website. I've set up a poll to get a bit of feed-back to see if that's too few, too many or about right. Please spare a few seconds to vote and/or leave a comment. Thank you :-).

And here are this week's new reviews and details of the current competitions:

Latest Reviews:

This week we're visiting all over the globe: Scotland, America, Sweden, Norway, China and Italy.

Pat Austin reviews the début novel from Karen Campbell, The Twilight Time, set in Glasgow and concludes that despite its problems, she'd probably read another;

Kerrie Smith is very impressed with Richard & Judy selection: R J Ellory's A Quiet Belief in Angels - another Brit setting his books in America;

I was very disappointed in Kjell Eriksson's The Cruel Stars of the Night which spends a lot of time away from the detectives

A second review of Broken by Karin Fossum comes courtesy of Maxine Clarke who writes that "BROKEN is a wonderful, haunting book, full of powerful, overwhelming emotions";

Sunnie Gill pops over to China to look at how the past has impacted on present-day China in Diane Wei Liang's Paper Butterfly;

and Geoff Jones reviews Spider by Michael Morley which is set in both Italy and New York and is the first in the Jack King ex-FBI Profiler series.


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants (ends 30 June)


Win a copy of Blood Lines by Grace Monroe**

** UK/Europe only (ends 5 July)

Choose the name of an Andy McNab villain for £10,000

The BBC reports that a bidder paid £10,000 to name the villain in Andy McNab's next novel:

The villain in author Andy McNab's next novel will be named by a charity bidder who has paid £10,000 for the privilege.

The former SAS man auctioned off the right to name the character at a gala dinner in London which raised £61,700 for the Shackleton Foundation charity.

The charity has been set up in memory of Polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton to support projects with the adventurer's "pioneering spirit".

The Shackleton Foundation will provide a bursary fund "for inspirational leaders determined to make a difference in their field, in particular to the less advantaged".

McNab, who refuses to be pictured, said: "Shackleton has always been a hero of mine and I think the foundation's mission to identify similarly inspiring leaders in today's world is excellent."

The winner, whose identity is not known, has yet to provide the name for McNab's villain.

OT: Doctor Who & Torchwood book offers

The Book People currently have ten Doctor Who books for £10:

* The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier
* Wishing Well by Trevor Baxendale
* The Last Dodo by Jacqueline Rayner
* The Price of Paradise by Colin Brake
* Wetworld by Mark Michalowski
* Forever Autumn by Mark Morris
* Sting of the Zygons by Stephen Cole
* Sick Building by Paul Magrs
* The Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole
* Wooden Heart by Martin Day

and three Torchwood books for £4.99:

* Another Life by Peter Anghelides
* Slow Decay by Andy Lane
* Border Princes by Dan Abnett

European Crime Festivals - help wanted to find them

On the website I have a page for Events, which covers the specific crime festivals in the UK and literary festivals with a significant crime fiction element. I've always wanted to incorporate details of similar events held in other European countries and I've been given a nudge to knuckle down and do it. I think there are some similar events to CrimeFest and the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in Italy, France etc.

So...if anyone has any information on crime fiction events in mainland Europe I'd much appreciate it if you'd drop me a line at karen at eurocrime dot co dot uk or you can leave a note in the comments. Thank you!

Get Sharp

It's a Crime reviews Second Shot by Zoe Sharp plus the author herself is guest-blogging over there. You can also here Zoe talk about the premise of Second Shot in just one minute at Meet the Author.

The Cat's in the Bag

Pippa Jones showing the enormous capacity of the jute bags available to buy for £2 at any Birmingham Library:

Le plaisir de lire

On holiday in Normandy last week, we stumbled over this pretty library in St Pierre des Nids. It was closed at the time and indeed we'd have been lucky to find it open as it only opens 4 hours on Wednesdays and 2 on Fridays. Still, it wasn't a big town and it's better than no library at all.

Massimo Carlotto winner of the last Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger

I'm not sure when this was awarded but the 2007 winner of the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Etranger at the Prix du Festival de Cognac was Massimo Carlotto for L'immense obscurité de la mort. The English title being Death's Dark Abyss, reviewed here on Euro Crime.

It seems to be the last time that prize will be awarded as the Festival appears to be defunct after 25 years, according to my reading of the official web site (with my rusty French)

Lee Child interview in the New York Times

This interview with Lee Child ran a couple of weeks ago but UK visitors may not have come across it. It concludes with the 4 possible reasons women might like Reacher:

“First, even in the 21st century women find it hard to express anger or disapproval, and so they get tremendous vicarious satisfaction from watching Jack knock some heads off. Second, women, much more than men, are concerned about basic injustice, and they like that Reacher puts things right. They also like that the female characters in the books are all genuine, fully fledged, capable women, not decorative bimbos, and Reacher treats them well. He’s kind of a post-feminist.

“And finally, reason No. 4, what makes Jack so attractive is the absolute impossibility of his sticking around. Affairs in the real world are messy — you get found out, you get divorced, you lose your house. But what if you could absolutely guarantee that the guy would stick around for two or three days and then he’d disappear? He’ll never phone, he’ll never write, and you’ll never see him again. That makes him the irresistible boyfriend.”

Read the whole article here.

A more recent interview appeared in The Observer at the weekend.

We at Euro Crime are big Lee Child/Reacher fans and you can read our reviews (all written by women strangely enough) via the bibliography page.

Criminal Justice series - update & Radio 4 review

Following on from my post in May the BBC have released a further press release about Criminal Justice, a five part series set to run on consecutive nights on BBC1 from the 30th June. The story:

One mad night and Ben Coulter's (Ben Whishaw) life is changed forever. As he gets ready to go out on the town, the 21-year-old looks in the mirror. It will be the last time he's able to recognise the person who looks back.

Little does Ben know that a wild encounter with a sexy young woman will tear his life apart. Within 24 hours he will be charged with murder and – what's worse – he can't remember what happened the night before.

What follows is a rollercoaster ride through the criminal justice system across the five episodes; where the truth is optional and what counts is playing the game, in order to come out on top.

No one wants to hear Ben's side of the story; a complex game of cat and mouse begins as soon as he is arrested, played out between the duty solicitor, the world-weary Stone (Con O'Neill) and the pugnacious DCI Box (Bill Paterson).

Ben's shocked parents don't know where to turn and deep down there is a terrifying doubt: could their son really be a murderer?

Ben's world becomes a labyrinth of oppressive places: police station, prison and courtroom. As Ben steps off the prison bus he has to learn to survive alongside cellmates and hardened career criminals Hooch (Pete Postlethwaite) and Freddie Graham (David Harewood).

Lost in this alien world, Ben has little sense of where things start or finish, and who is in charge.

The press release contains interviews with Ben Whishaw and Pete Postlethwaite, a who's who of characters and an episode guide.

There was also a review of the show in last Friday's Front Row at about 11 minutes in, which you can listen to again for the next few days. The review was mainly positive; Nicholas Royle called it compelling if you can get past the contrived beginning.

Publishing Deal - Mark Mills

From Publishers Lunch:

Author of literary historical suspense novels Amagansett and The Savage Garden Mark Mills' THE INFORMATION OFFICER, to Jennifer Hershey at Random House, in a two-book deal, by Stephanie Cabot as The Gernert Company (NA).

The Information Officer will be out in the UK next May.

April & May's Competition Winners

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

Prize=A copy of The Trophy Taker by Lee Weeks
Which one of the following authors has a series set in China?
c) Christopher West

Winners:
Peter Cleasby
Victoria Harbourne
A P Phillips
Tracey Rainbow-Hunt

Prize=A copy of The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin
Which one of the following authors also sets a series in the twelth century (12C)?
c) Bernard Knight

Winners:
Alex Anderson
Jake Cheung
Ray Dodds
Hazel Hill
Jenny Price

Prize=A copy of An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson
Josephine Tey's play, Richard of Bordeaux, launched the career of which actor?
c) John Gielgud

Winners:
Anna Helm
Neil Johnson,
Rachel Lloyd
Maggie Lloyd
Andy Shipton


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

Prize=A copy of Lost Souls by Neil White
Which one of the following authors also has a series featuring a journalist and a police officer as the main characters?
b) Patricia Hall

Winners:
Jake Cheung
Sheila Dunlop
Jean Mowbray
Karen Railton

Prize=A signed copy of Spider by Michael Morley
Which one of the following authors has a series set in Italy?
a) David Hewson

Winners:
Jake Cheung
Philip Greenwood
James Nash
Sarah Plusnin
David Wilson

Enter this month's competitions here.

John Connolly talking about The Reapers

Hodder have pointed me to this YouTube video of John Connolly talking about "his writing and his new blood-splattered Charlie Parker novel, THE REAPERS". The video is 9 minutes long and the sound quality's a bit poor.



There is a 'high quality' setting on the original page on YouTube which is a bit better.

Library Journal - Summer Debuts

From the current page on mysteries at Library Journal:

Summer Debuts

June is busting out with an excellent selection of intriguing first novels and new series. In Nicola Upson's audacious debut, An Expert in Murder, her protagonist is none other than classic crime author Josephine Tey. The Streets of Babylon, Carina Burman's first entry in a new trilogy about a Swedish crime-solving writer, is remarkable in its early Victorian setting and strong female characters.

A genealogist plays an investigative role in Dan Waddell's series launch, The Blood Detective. Evan Marshall introduces Anna Winthrop, a New York City sanitation supervisor, in Death Is Disposable, and Slovakian Police Commander Jana Matinova makes her crime fiction debut in Michael Genelin's Siren of the Waters, sure to be one of the best police procedurals of the year.

Read LJ's reviews of the above titles and more - here. I'm itching to get hold of Siren of the Waters, published by Soho Press.

New Reviews: Burdess, Cotterill, Edwards, Fossum, McAuley, Meyer

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the competitions:

Latest Reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Wendy Burdess's The Meticulous Messenger set in Revolutionary France and England, and which sounds charming;

Maxine Clarke reviews the third of Colin Cotterill's Laos based series, Disco for the Departed - which stars an ancient coroner;

Liverpool resident Laura Root gives the thumbs up for Waterloo Sunset by Martin Edwards which sees the return of Liverpudlian lawyer Harry Devlin;

Karin Fossum's departure from her Inspector Sejer series, Broken, is not strictly a crime novel but Fiona Walker writes that it "is certainly a novel of suspense";

Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback edition of Players by Paul McAuley and highly recommends it

and though not Euro Crime, it is translated crime, I review the audio book of the latest from Deon Meyer - Devil's Peak - an engrossing tale coupled with an award-winning narrator in Saul Reichlin.


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants


Win a copy of Blood Lines by Grace Monroe**

** UK/Europe only

Shortlist for Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year

The shortlist for this year's Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year award comprises 12 out of the 20 titles originally longlisted. The public have voted and the remaining titles are:

Simon Beckett, The Chemistry of Death
Mark Billingham, Buried
Christopher Brookmyre, A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil
Reginald Hill, The Death of Dalziel
Graham Hurley, One Under
Peter James, Not Dead Enough
Simon Kernick, Relentless
Stuart MacBride, Dying Light
Stef Penney, The Tenderness of Wolves
Peter Robinson, Piece of my Heart
C.J. Sansom, Sovereign
Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes and Happiness

Links are to the Euro Crime reviews

The winner will be announced on 17th July at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

At last, the first book in the series

Fans of translated crime fiction will know the frustration of not being able to read the books in the order they were written (eg Nesbo especially) but a couple of authors are finally having their first book in the series translated, albeit after two other of their books have already been published in English.

Hakan Nesser's Mind's Eye is the first in the Van Veeteren series, just published in the US and out in July in the UK.

Synopsis: Chief Inspector Van Veeteren knew that murder cases were never as open-and-shut as this one: Janek Mitter woke one morning with a brutal hangover and discovered his wife of three months lying facedown in the bathtub, dead. With only the flimsiest excuse as his defense, he is found guilty of a drunken crime of passion and imprisoned in a mental institution.

But Van Veeteren’s suspicions about the identity of the killer are borne out when Mitter also becomes a murder victim. Now the chief inspector launches a full-scale investigation of the two slayings. But it may only be the unspoken secrets of the dead–revealed in a mysterious letter that Mitter wrote shortly before his death–that will finally allow Van Veeteren to unmask the killer and expose the shocking root of this sordid violence.

Read an excerpt here.

Update: Read the Euro Crime review of The Mind's Eye.















The second author is Alicia Gimenez-Bartlett, whose Death Rites the first of the Detective Petra Delicado series has recently been published in the US.

Synopsis: Tough, sexy, at times apparently pitiless, Petra Delicado is a new kind of cop in Spanish crime writing. As she battles with sexist colleagues, ruthless reporters, indifferent witnesses, hardened criminals, and houseplants that just won’t flower, she sometimes thinks her thirst for new challenges and perpetual change is more trouble than it’s worth.

Inspector Delicado has been chained to a tiresome desk job in the documentation department of the Barcelona police force for months. But things are about to change. The department is short-handed and there’s a serial rapist on the loose. Delicado is partnered with the portly and impossibly compliant Sergeant Fermín Garzón with orders to solve the case before it succeeds in ruining the good name of the Barcelona police force. However, the only lead they have is the rapist’s mysterious signature: a circular mark of unknown origins he leaves on his victims’ forearms. No witnesses, no other leads, and no help from the victims themselves. To further complicate her life, Inspector Delicado is trying to shake off two ex-husbands, Hugo, who persists in shamelessly belittling her, and Pepe, as helpless and hapless as a little boy in her absence.

New ITV crime drama

From Broadcast:

ITV Productions has won what is thought to be new director of television Peter Fincham's first original drama commission - to make a series about identity theft.

Identity is a six-part primetime drama for ITV1 penned by He Kills Coppers writer Ed Whitmore. The series has only just been ordered and details are limited, but Broadcast understands it will be set in a fictitious police department that investigates identity theft.

A source at ITV said Identity would "be in the style of Waking the Dead" - which Whitmore co-wrote - in that a different case of identity theft would be explored in each episode.

It is not thought that Identity has a confirmed transmission date, although it has been earmarked for next year. Cast details have not been confirmed.

OT: Jane Austen as vampire

I'm feeling a bit undead myself. I'm back home, shattered from cycling and a poor night's sleep on the ferry - I'm not a great sea traveller and the information at the port - "mer peu agité" - did not help!! I managed to pick up the cats by communicating mostly in sign language and was unable to express my full horror over the fact that they have no record of the cats' next stay in September and that they're now fully booked, so the hunt is on for another cattery for next time. The beautiful Foxy was the star and I could hear the carer telling him how much she'd miss him :-).

Anyway, working my way through a few emails, I saw reference to Jane Austen as a vampire. A bit of googling later, this from the author's mouth:

And finally, something I've been waiting for the past month to tell you. I had to wait until it was official, which it was on Tuesday, when Publishers Weekly's "Hot Deals" column broke the news. I've signed a 3-book deal with Random House's Ballantine imprint for a series of novels featuring Jane Austen as a vampire. I know, right? Big Fun. I'm so pleased about this. And already the books are getting attention. Yesterday they were written about in The New Yorker's "The Book Bench" column. Again, Big Fun. The first book is due out in late 2009, and you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the coming months.

And a bit more from Publisher's Weekly:

Liz Scheier at Ballantine won a four-way auction for Michael Thomas Ford's Jane Bites Back, taking world English rights to three books via Mitchell Waters at Curtis Brown. The novel presents an undead Jane Austen, frustrated by nearly 200 years of writer's block and 116 rejections of an unpublished novel she finished just before turning into a vampire; she's becoming increasingly irritated that the rest of the world seems to be getting rich and famous off of her works and her life. The two follow-up books will be derived from the first. Waters said Ford, the author of many books for young readers and adults, is likely to publish this under a pseudonym; pub date still undecided.

Release date for Rome Noir

Rome Noir edited by Chiara Stangalino and Maxim Jakubowski will be published next February. One of the Noir series from Akashic, it will contain new stories from:

Antonio Scurati, Carlo Lucarelli, Gianrico Carofiglio, Diego De Silva, Giuseppe Genna, Marcello Fois, C.D. Formetta, Enrico Franceschini, Boosta, Francesca Mazzucato, Maxim Jakubowski, Evelina Santangelo, Nicola LaGioia, Tommaso Pincio, Antonio Pascale, and Nicoletta Vallorani.

From Akashic's website: Rome Noir looks beyond the tourist facade of Italy's capital. This is the real city of Fellini, Pasolini, and countless other major artists who devoted their lives to depicting the grandeur and decadence of this ever fascinating metropolis.

Both a modern city suffocated by traffic fumes and cars and a repository of knowledge and Classical monuments, Rome (with its hills and ruins) is a perfect conduit for an excursion into the many facets of modern noir. Here, Rome takes a place of honor amongst Akashic's growing collection of anthologies devoted to the dark streets of cities. Assembled by award-winning British editor and writer Maxim Jakubowski, who has enjoyed a long relationship with Italy, and Italian conference organizer and filmmaker Chiara Stangalino, Rome Noir collects some of the biggest talents of the Italian crime and literary scene.

From Stazione Termini, immortalized by Roberto Rossellini's films, to Pier Paolo Pasolini's desolate beach of Ostia, and encompassing famous landmarks and streets, this is the sinister side of the Dolce Vita come to life, a stunning gallery of dark characters, grotesques, and lost souls seeking revenge or redemption in the shadow of the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, Trastevere, the quiet waters of the Tiber, and Piazza Navona. Rome will never be the same.

The first Arabic Detective Novel in English

I mentioned a few weeks ago in passing about the first Arabic detective novel to be published in English: The Final Bet by Abdelilah Hamdouchi. The Final Bet is now available in hardback and will be out in paperback in September. The paperback publisher is Arabia Books a joint venture between Haus Publishing and Arcadia "working in close cooperation with the American University in Cairo Press". This collaboration with Arcadia, I assume, will allow The Final Bet to be eligible for the International Dagger next year (should it prove good enough).

Synopsis: Casablanca. Othman, a handsome young Moroccan man, returns home to discover his elderly French wife, Sofia, brutally murdered in their bedroom. Highly educated but chronically unemployed, Othman had been in desperate straits before meeting Sofia, who pampered him with fancy cars, expensive clothes, and access to her mansion in the most exclusive
neighbourhood in Casablanca. But living with a woman more than forty years his senior was too much for Othman—before his wife’s murder he sought relief in a steamy affair with an attractive young aerobics instructor, Naeema.
The Moroccan police quickly zero in on Othman as the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. But is he guilty? Did he kill his wife for the money and his lover? Or is he an innocent man, framed by circumstance — and an overzealous and brutal police force?

Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s The Final Bet is the first Arabic detective novel to be translated into English. With it, Hamdouchi joins the ranks of Yasmina Khadra and Henning Mankell, finally bringing the modern Arabic novel to the global stage of detective fiction.

Also from the publisher's website: Abdelilah Hamdouchi is one of the first writers of Arabic-language detective fiction. The author of eight novels, Hamdouchi is also an award-winning screenwriter for Moroccan television and cinema. All of his police novels, including The Final Bet, have been produced for Moroccan television. He lives in Rabat, Morocco.

I look forward to giving this one a go (if and when a copy crosses my desk - may take the library a while to pick it up) not least as it bucks the trend of most of the review copies that come my way - by being less than 150 pages long.

Jo Nesbo News

All rejoice as amazon.co.uk are listing The Redeemer for March 09. And according to the official Jo Nesbo website, it's #6.

Synopsis from website:

A 14-year old girl is raped at one of the Salvation Army summer camps. Twelve years later, at a Christmas concert in a square in Oslo, a Salvation Army soldier is executed by a man in the crowd. A press photographer has caught a suspect on one of the photos of the concert. Beate Lønn, the identification expert, is confused by how the face can change from one photo to the next. Inspector Harry Hole’s search for the faceless man takes place on the seamy side of the city, among those who seek eternal – or just momentary – redemption. And the gunman has not yet completed his mission.

If you want to know why some of us jump up and down at the mention of his name, read the reviews linked to, on the Jo Nesbo bibliography page :-).

Summer Reads

A couple of the papers have produced lists of 'Summer Reads'.

The Telegraph's suggested Thriller/Crime reads for the summer are:

Nothing to Lose by Lee Child
This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton
The Girl of his Dreams by Donna Leon

From The Guardian's 50 Best Summer Reads (just the Euro Crime eligible titles):

The Cairo Diary by Maxim Chattam (my current read)
The Chameleon's Shadow by Minette Walters
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin - win a copy
A Quiet Belief in Angels by RJ Ellory
A Florentine Death by Michele Giuttari

Off for a few days

I'm now off to France for a short trip but I've scheduled some posts to run over the next few days. Unfortunately I won't be in a position to moderate any comments until I get back, but please do write them :-).

Richard & Judy Summer Reads 2008

The Richard & Judy Summer Reads have been announced. A few crime/thriller entries. (Barclay, Hart and Bradley - none of these are European authors though).

25 June. The Outcast - Sadie Jones
2 July. No Time For Goodbye - Linwood Barclay
9 July. East of the Sun - Julia Gregory
16. July. Down River - John Hart
23 July. The Pirate's Daughter - M Cezair-Thompson
30 July. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee - Rebecca Miller
6 Aug. Addition - Toni Jordan
13 Aug. The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

New Reviews: Mike Ripley's Crime File, Hill, Krajewski, MacBride, Mills and Tursten

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

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest crime file he reviews: The Death Maze (aka The Serpent's Tale) by Ariana Franklin, Inspector Ghote's First Case by H R F Keating, Spider by Michael Morley and Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin (to win the latter see the competitions below);

Maxine Clarke reviews the newest in the Simon Serrailler series by Susan Hill, The Vows of Silence - a book which put her through the wringer, but was worth it;

Norman Price reviews Marek Krajewski's Death in Breslau writing that Krajewski is "a master at recreating an atmosphere of fear, darkness, creepiness and foreboding";

Pat Austin reviews the new offering from Aberdeen's Stuart MacBride Flesh House which manages to be both gruesome and funny;

Karen Chisholm was hooked by Crow Stone by Jenni Mills which is set in Bath

and Maxine has the highest of praise for Helene Tursten's Detective Inspector Huss (which I'm pleased about as I recommended her via my review of The Torso) saying that "this book is as near to perfection as you can get in this genre".


Current Competitions:

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants


NEW: Win a copy of Blood Lines by Grace Monroe**

** UK/Europe only

News page updated

Slowly catching up, only to fall behind again next week when I'm off to This Night's Foul Work territory (Normandy) but for now, the News page is up to date. Some book called Devil May Care is hogging all the reviews and they're sadly, not terribly positive.

The latest Euro Crime reviews are up - details to follow in separate post.

Guy Ritchie to make new Sherlock Holmes film

I missed this article last week on Digital Spy:

Guy Ritchie has signed up to direct a new Sherlock Holmes movie.

The Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels director will rewrite and helm the project, which is expected to have an action-orientated slant on the famous fictional British detective.

Ritchie's movie will be based on a forthcoming Holmes-based comic book by Lionel Wigwam, which focuses on the character's boxing and swordsmanship skills.

Previous actors to play Arthur Conan Doyle's creation include Basil Rathbone, Ronald Howard and Peter Cushing.

Warner Bros has scheduled the movie for a 2010 release.

Apparently Robert Downey Jr is interested in playing the man himself.

AustCrime's Quiz winnings

We thought we did well at CrimeFest coming third in the quiz and though there was no official prize, the first and second placers gave us a few of their duplicates so we weren't empty handed. However Karen of AustCrime won the jackpot recently in a book shop quiz. Sunnie, who also reviews for Euro Crime came second. Karen won $600 AUS of books and she's put a photo up on her blog of her choices, plus you can peak at a bit of her TBR! Congratulations to both of them.

OT: Torchwood series 3

As if 13 episodes isn't meagre enough then next year's series of Torchwood will be only be 5 episodes long. Reported on Digital Spy:

Torchwood's executive producer Julie Gardner has confirmed rumours that the show will move to BBC1 with a much shorter season.

According to the official Torchwood Magazine, the third season of the Doctor Who spinoff will feature one continuous story and last just five episodes, including at least one penned by Russell T. Davies.

Gardner told the publication: "As you know, plans for a third series have been underway for a long time, and we now have a new producer and a new director in place, as well as brand new scripts all ready to go. It's the longest and most ambitious story we have ever made, so be prepared for some shocks and surprises!"

She added: "Life at Torchwood is never quiet or easy and the whole of Captain Jack's world is about to be turned upside down!"

The new series will begin filming in August for transmission in early 2009.

Crime Writers at the Edinburgh Festival

The programme for the Edinburgh Festival is 80 pages long, but I've spotted the following authors appearing (in separate sessions):

9th August
Catherine O'Flynn
Hedi Kaddour
Justine Picardie

10th
Val McDermid
Paulus Hochgatterer & Marek Krajewski
Nury Vittachi
PaulineMcLynn

11th
Karen Campbell, Gillian Galbraith & Caro Ramsay

12th
Gavin Esler
Clare Francis & Philip Kerr

13th
Writing crime fiction workshop - Aline Templeton
Reginald Hill

14th
Ian Rankin

15th
Jan Kjaerstad
Tony Black & Jonny Glynn
Quintin Jardine

16th
Christopher Brookmyre
Stella Duffy
Alexander McCall Smith
Sophie Hannah & Gregory Norminton

17th
Christopher Brookmyre

18th
Mark Billingham
Lin Anderson, Alex Gray & Aline Templeton

19th
Xavier-Marie Bonnot & Dominique Manotti
Kate Mosse with Rita Monaldi & Francesco Sorti
Alexander McCall Smith

20th
Jasper Fforde

21st
Bengt Ohlsson & Klas Östergren
Ian Rankin

22nd
(Duncan Campbell &) Matt Rees
John Connolly, Paul Johnston & David Robinson
DianeWei Liang (& Chiew-Siah Tei)

23rd
Giancarlo de Cataldo & Domingo Villar
KO Dahl & Camilla Läckberg
Alanna Knight & The Mulgray Twins
Shona MacLean (& Donna Milner)

24th
Andrey Kurkov

Browse the programme and see what I've missed - here. The official website is here.

Lynda La Plante's Anna Travis series on the tv

From Digital Spy:

Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante is working on a new two-hour crime drama for ITV.

Above Suspicion will centre on detective DC Anna Travis, played by Kelly Reilly (He Kills Coppers, Joe's Palace), as she takes on her first murder case.

Travis is described as "a young and ambitious officer who is fast-tracking her way through the ranks, eager to prove herself to be as successful as her late father".

Ciaran Hinds (There Will Be Blood) will play Travis's boss Detective Chief Inspector Langton.

Above Suspicion is based on La Plante's bestselling novel of the same name. Filming will begin in London next month.

Currently there are three books in La Plante's Anna Travis series: Under Suspicion, The Red Dahlia and Clean Cut.

New Competition on Euro Crime

I've just been given the go-ahead to offer up 4 copies of Grace Monroe's Blood Lines. The catch, as usual, is a tricky question...Entrants from UK and Europe only please and the closing date is 5 July. Still running is a competition for Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin and there are no geograpical restrictions on this one.
Enter the competitions - here!

Another Crime Writing Festival this year

Mike Stotter from Shots has given the heads up for a new festival at Reading later this year. The Reading Festival of Crime Writing will take place between 12 and 14 September. There's an amazing list of authors lined up (so far):

Mark Billingham
John Connor
Ruth Downie
R. J. Ellory
Frances Fyfield
Meg Gardiner
Robert Goddard
Alex Gray
Sophie Hannah
John Harvey
David Hewson
Graham Hurley
Michael Jecks
Simon Kernick
Patrick Lennon
Peter Lovesey
Val McDermid
John Macken
Stuart Pawson
Malcolm Rose
Cath Staincliffe
Aline Templeton
Laura Wilson
Lee Weeks

The programme will be available from July and you can get on their mailing list via the official website.

Publishing Deal - Jeremy Duns

From Publishing News:

At Simon & Schuster, Mike Jones has acquired UK/Commonwealth ex Canada to Free Agent plus two further novels by Jeremy Duns from Antony Topping at Greene & Heaton. Set between London and Nigeria at the time of the Biafran War, Free Agent, Duns' debut, introduces us to MI6 agent Paul Dark, on the run as a suspected double agent and intent on tracking down the only woman he ever loved… “An intense, twisting thriller with innumerable cliff-hangers,” according to Jones.

Read more about the author and his new book at his website.

Finding Nouf in The Night of the Mi'raj

This is a 'title change' alert for Zoe Ferraris' The Night of the Mi'raj, published in the UK in March and recently shortlisted for the 'New Blood' Dagger. In just a few days the same book but titled Finding Nouf will be available to buy in the US. I haven't yet read it (or even own a copy!) but it's been on my wish-list for a while.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk: Among the well-to-do families of Jeddah, Palestinian-born desert guide Nayir is an outsider. But when Nouf ash-Shrawi, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy Saudi dynasty, disappears just before her arranged marriage, Nayir is the man the Shrawis trust to bring her home. Days later Nouf's body is found in a desert wadi, but Nayir's task is not over; he feels compelled to uncover the disturbing circumstances surrounding her death. His search takes him far from his natural terrain, away from the endless dunes and empty skies of the desert and into the city of Jeddah, with its oppressive monuments, foreigners' compounds and shuttered apartments. Most troubling of all, his investigations force him to work closely with Katya Hijazi, a forensic scientist. He finds himself struggling with emotions he has fought all his life to repress and with loyalties he has never before questioned: to old friends, to his faith, and to a culture in which women take their secrets to their graves. Vivid and suspenseful, The Night of the Mi'raj is an extraordinary psychological drama and a mesmerising portrait of a society at once exquisitely cultured and profoundly claustrophobic.

The author's bio explains the setting:

ZOË FERRARIS moved to Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the first Gulf War to live with her then-husband and his extended family, a group of Saudi-Palestinian Bedouins who had never welcomed an American into their lives before. She first conceived the idea for Finding Nouf at a jacket bazaar in Jeddah, where her ex-husband bought a “Columbo” coat and proposed setting off to solve mysteries—though to Zoë the only mystery at the time was why they were at a jacket bazaar in the hottest country in the world. She has an M.F.A. from Columbia University and received first prize for mystery fiction at the Santa Barbara Writers’ Conference in 2003. She currently lives in San Francisco with her teenage daughter. Finding Nouf is Ferraris's first novel. Translation rights have so far sold in thirteen countries.

An extract is published on the amazon.com product page.

New Detection Club members

At CrimeFest, Maxine and I managed to catch up with the charming Martin Edwards as we partook of the free breakfast of coffee and muffins/Danish and he revealed that he and Ann Cleeves had been elected (by secret ballot) to The Detection Club.

The Detection Club was founded in 1928 by Anthony Berkeley. You can read a bit more about it and see who else are members on the gadetection wiki page. Simon Brett is the current President.

I wonder if this oath is still in use? It begins:

The Ruler shall say to the Candidate:

M.N., is it your firm desire to become a Member of the Detection Club?

Then the Candidate shall answer in a loud voice:

That is my desire.

Ruler:

Do you promise that your detectives shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them, using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminine Intuition, Mumbo-Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or the Act of God?

Candidate:

I do.

Ruler:

Do you solemnly swear never to conceal a vital clue from the reader?

Candidate:

I do.

Sophie Hannah publishing and tv deals

The lovely Petrona has sent me this snippet of news from The Bookseller:

Sophie Hannah's psychological suspense novels are to be adapted as prime time dramas after production company Hat Trick bought rights in Little Face and Hannah's three following novels.

The news comes as Hodder fiction director Carolyn Mays acquires five new novels from Hannah through Peter Straus at RCW.

Hannah's latest novel, The Point of Rescue, will be published in paperback in August. Hannah, who is also a poet, moved into thriller writing with Little Face, and followed it up with Hurting Distance.

Check out the Euro Crime page for Sophie Hannah with its link to a review of Hurting Distance, a book which "fulfils the high standard set by her first, LITTLE FACE".

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - too

The paperback of Bangkok Haunts is due out on the 16th. And for those who've not been lucky enough to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the paperback is out on 24th July (just in time for someone to affix the International Dagger Winner stickers on the front?)

Peter James sponsors police car

From the Daily Mail:

In the first commercial deal between an author and the police, a £9,000 Hyundai Getz will soon be patrolling the streets of Sussex, embellished on all four sides with the name of Peter James.

His series of Brighton-based Roy Grace novels has sold more than three million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages.

Now Mr James and his publishers Pan Macmillan have agreed to sponsor the Brighton and Hove policing division’s new five-door saloon.

Read the rest of the article here and read the Euro Crime reviews of his best-selling series - here.

On Front Row this week

Assuming all goes to plan the following, of interest to crime fiction and Doctor Who fans, should be on Radio 4's Front Row this week:

Wednesday
And Jeff Park, our regular sleuth amongst the shelves of new crime fiction, recommends some recent highlights.

Friday
On Friday Kirsty Lang talks to actor, writer and director Noel Clarke. He became a very familiar face to millions of Doctor Who viewers when he played the role of Mickey, and after writing the controversial film Kidulthood, he's now directed a follow-up - Adulthood.

New standalone novel from Alexander McCall Smith

A tip-off from Birlinn's newsletter:

This Christmas Alexander McCall Smith will venture outside 44 Scotland Street with a brand-new stand-alone book for Polygon, La’s Orchestra Saves the World. A stand-alone book from McCall Smith is a rare and exciting thing, and Polygon is delighted to be given this chance to publish it.

Set in the sleepy town of Suffolk, 1939, the widow La forms an amateur orchestra to entertain the locals, and hold back the growing shadow of despair as the war takes hold. The distraction helps to soothe her own broken heart and a touching friendship is formed between her and a refugee from Poland. This is another gem not to be missed from one of Britain’s most popular writers.

La’s Orchestra Saves the World is due to be published in November 2008.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to be filmed

From the Guardian:

John le Carré's hit thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is to hit the big screen. The author, whose real name is David Cornwall, is at work with the scriptwriter Peter Morgan on a film adaptation of the novel, first published in 1974 as the first instalment in a trilogy about cold war spies. To be produced by Working Title - the production company behind most of the British film industry's biggest hits - it will be the first feature-film version of the novel, which was made into a television series starring Alec Guinness in 1979.

CrimeFest is dead, long live CrimeFest

Yes, no sooner is this year's Crime Fest over and done with, then we can start looking forward to next year's. The popularity of 2008's convention has seen the every-two year status increased to annually.

The dates to set aside are 14 - 17 May 2009.

The toastrix is Meg Gardiner and one of the Guests of Honour is Simon Brett. Negotiations are under way to secure the International (ie translated) GoH.

More snippets from this year's event to follow over the next few days.

OT: John Barrowman - Dr Who & Torchwood interview

Following on from an earlier post about Doctor Who audiobooks read by David Tennant, I found this website where you can buy the downloads direct.

There's a also seven minute interview with John Barrowman Of Dr Who & Torchwood which is free to buy (as it were) but you may have to register and go through the checkout system. You can also listen to a two minute sample of it.

Off to CrimeFest tomorrow

I've had a busy week this week, ranging from the (relative) high of seeing Sex and the City on Monday to the low of a funeral today back home. I've not been back long and I'm shaking from lack of food or too much adrenalin but I am really looking forward to going to CrimeFest tomorrow. I'll be meeting up with some of the usual suspects - Petrona and crimeficreader - but also for the first time with Mr Crime Scraps and Declan from Crime Always Pays.

At the moment the house is strewn with clothes to take, the washing machine is on and I'm pondering which book(s) to bring.

I have scheduled an off topic post about Torchwood for Friday but that aside, Euro Crime will probably be quiet until Sunday/Monday and the new reviews will be a bit delayed and/or reduced.

New Titles for June

The following titles are published for the first time in June. A couple of titles have their premiere in the US but most are UK publications. This is taken from Euro Crime's Future Releases by month page which currently goes up to 2010:

Akunin, Boris - Pelagia and the Red Rooster, #3 Pelagia, 19th Century Russian Nun

Allison, Eric & Jones, Bruce Kennedy - The Last Straight Face

Anderson, Louise - Death's Sister, #2 Lawyer Erin Patterson, Glasgow

Black, Benjamin - The Lemur

Bruen, Ken - Sanctuary, #7 Jack Taylor

Cumming, Charles - Typhoon

Dean, Anna - A Moment of Silence

Finnis, Jane - Buried too Deep, #3 Aurelia Marcella, Innkeeper, AD 90s, Roman Britain

Fossum, Karin - Broken

Fowler, Christopher - The Victoria Vanishes, #6 Inspectors Bryant and May, London

Fraser, Sara - The Resurrection Men, #2 Thomas Potts, reluctant Parish Constable, Worcs

Gimenez-Bartlett, Alicia - Death Rites, #3 Detective Petra Delicado, Spain

Giuttari, Michele - A Death in Tuscany, #2 Michele Ferrara, Squadra Mobile, Florence

Goodwin, Jason - The Bellini Card, #3 Yashim, The Ottoman Detective, 1830s Istanbul

Granger, Ann - A Mortal Curiosity, #2 Lizzie Martin, Lady's companion and Inspector Ben Ross, Victorian Era

Gregory, Susanna - The Devil's Disciples, #14 Matthew Bartholomew, 14th Century physician, Cambridge

Heley, Veronica - False Picture,#2 Bea Abbott, Sixty-something owner of The Abbott (Domestic) Agency

Hill, Reginald - The Roar of the Butterflies, #5 Joe Sixsmith, PI, Luton

Hill, Susan - The Vows of Silence, #4 Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, Lafferton

Holt, Hazel - Time to Die, #18 Sheila Malory

Izner, Claude - The Montmartre Investigation, #3 Victor Legris, late 19th Century Paris

James, Peter - Dead Man's Footsteps, #4 Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, Brighton

Jecks, Michael - The Prophecy of Death, #25 Sir Baldwin Furnshill, Keeper of the King’s Peace, and Simon Puttock, Bailiff

John, Katherine - A Well-deserved Murder, #6 Trevor Joseph, Policeman

Johnston, Paul - The Collector of Souls,#2 Matt Wells

Kernick, Simon - Deadline

Maclean, Charles - Home Before Dark

Magson, Adrian - No Kiss for the Devil, #5 Investigative reporter Riley Gavin & Ex military cop Frank Palmer, London

Marston, Edward - The Brighton Express,#5 Det. Insp Colbeck, Scotland Yard, mid 19th Century

Martin, Andrew - Death on a Branch Line, #5 Jim Stringer, Train Fireman

McDermott, Andy - The Tomb of Hercules, #2 Archaeologist Nina Wilde & ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase

McGee, James - Rapscallion, #3 Matthew Hawkwood, Bow Street Runner, Regency London

Medieval Murderers, The - The Lost Prophecies

Miles, Alan - You’re Only 39 Once, #1 Jim Diamond

Monroe, Grace - Blood Lines, #2 Brodie McClennan, Lawyer, Edinburgh

Myers, Amy - Murder in the Mist, #5 Peter and Georgia Marsh, father and daughter cold case investigators/authors, Kent

Nabb, Magdalen - Vita Nuova, #14 Marshal Guarnaccia, Florence, Italy

Nesser, Hakan - Mind's Eye, #4 Inspector Van Veeteren

Peacock, Caro - Death of a Dancer, #2 Liberty Lane, Victorian Era

Schenkel, Andrea Maria - The Murder Farm

Seymour, Gerald - Time Bomb

Sharp, Zoe - Third Strike, #7 Charlie Fox, ex-Special Forces soldier turned bodyguard

Thompson, Brian - The Widow's Secret, #1 Bella Wallis, writer, Victorian London

von Bohlen, Claus - Who is Charli Conti?

Waddell, Dan - The Blood Detective, #1 Genealogist Nigel Barnes

Walters, Michael - The Outcast, #3 Inspector Nergui of the Mongolian Serious Crime squad

More Dagger shortlists

Some more of the Dagger shortlists:

Steel
Mo Hayder - Ritual
Gregg Hurwitz - I See You
Michael Robotham - Shatter
Tom Rob Smith - Child 44
David Stone - The Echelon Vendetta


New Blood
Zoë Ferraris - The Night of the the Mi’raj
Elena Forbes - Die With Me
Caro Ramsay - Absolution
Matt Rees - The Bethlehem Murders
Tom Rob Smith - Child 44

Read more at the CWA Dagger overview page.

International Dagger - Shortlist

From a comment on the previous post:

Roger Cornwell said...

Here's the shortlist:

Andrea Camilleri (The Patience of the Spider)
Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Dominique Manotti (Lorraine Connection)
Martin Suter (A Deal with the Devil)
Fred Vargas (This Night's Foul Work)

More information on the this page on the CWA website. And feel free to comment in the Daggers Forum.

I'm sorry, I don't know what books were submitted, but it's a possible reason for not shortlisting that the book wasn't entered in the first place. If you're not in, you can't win!

Well I got 2 correct...More information on the titles and reasons for choice - on the CWA website.

International Dagger Shortlist speculation...

The shortlist for the Duncan Lawrie International Dagger award (and the other awards) will be announced on Tuesday night. I'm particularly interested in the International Dagger as it's the only Dagger award for which translated crime novels are eligible. The criteria are:

Eligible books must be crime novels by the broadest definition including thrillers, suspense novels and spy fiction as long as the book was not originally written in English and has been translated into English for UK publication between June 1 2007 and May 31 2008 with a closing date for entries of 17 April 2008. After November 1 2007, titles submitted more than 30 days after publication date may be excluded.

From my database, I believe the following titles to be eligible. There will no doubt be some I have missed. I have included the non European books that I know about (links are to Euro Crime reviews):

Akunin, Boris - The State Counsellor
Benoit, Michel - The Thirteenth Apostle
Bonnot, Xavier-Marie - The First Fingerprint
Burman, Carina - The Streets of Babylon
Cabasson, Armand - Wolf Hunt
Cabasson, Armand - The Officer's Prey
Camilleri Andrea - The Patience of the Spider
Camilleri, Andrea - Rounding the Mark
Canobbio, Andrea - The Natural Disorder of Things
Cappellani, Ottavio - Who Is Lou Sciortino?
Carofiglio, Gianrico - Reasonable Doubts
Carofiglio, Gianrico - The Past Is Another Country
Chattam, Maxim - The Cairo Diary
Dahl, K O - The Man in the Window
De Cataldo, Giancarlo - Crimini: The Bitter Lemon Book of Italian Crime Fiction (editor)
Delalande, Arnauld - The Dante Trap
Edwardson, Ake - Frozen Tracks
Fossum, Karin - Black Seconds
Giuttari, Michele - A Florentine Death
Glauser, Friedrich - The Spoke
Gomez-Jurado, Juan - God's Spy
Grytten, Frode - The Shadow in the River
Hammesfahr, Petra - The Sinner
Hoeg, Peter - The Quiet Girl
Holt, Anne - The Final Murder (apa What Never Happens)
Indridason, Arnaldur - The Draining Lake
Izner, Claude - The Pere-Lachaise Mystery
Jego, Yves & Lepee, Denis - The Sun King Rises
Joensuu, Matti Yrjänä - To Steal Her Love
Jungstedt, Mari - Unspoken
Kaddour, Hedi - Waltenberg
Krajewski, Marek - Death in Breslau
Lackberg, Camilla - The Ice Princess
Larsson, Asa - The Blood Spilt
Larsson, Stieg - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Lucarelli, Carlo The Damned Season
Mankell, Henning - The Eye of the Leopard
Mankell, Henning - Kennedy's Brain
Manotti, Dominique - Lorraine Connection
Martinez, Guillermo - The Book of Murder
Mercier, Pascal - Night Train to Lisbon
Meyer, Deon - Devil's Peak
Miyabe, Miyuki - The Devil's Whisper
Navarro, Julia - The Bible of Clay
Nesbo, Jo - Nemesis
Ostergren, Klas - Gentlemen
Padura, Leonardo - Havana Gold
Parot, Jean-Francois - The Man with the Lead Stomach
Perez-Reverte, Arturo - The Painter of Battles
Perez-Reverte, Arturo - The King's Gold
Reig, Rafael - A Pretty Face
Schlink, Bernhard - Self's Deception
Sigurdardottir, Yrsa - Last Rituals
Somer, Mehmet Murat - The Prophet Murders
Suter, Martin - A Deal with the Devil
Vargas, Fred - This Night's Foul Work
Villar, Domingo - Blue-Water Eyes

So which ones will be on the shortlist? My six - based on my own reading plus Euro Crime and press reviews, are:

Gomez-Jurado's God's Spy, Hammesfahr's The Sinner, Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Meyer's Devil's Peak, Nesbo's Nemesis and Vargas' This Night's Foul Work

Anyone else care to speculate?

New Reviews: Camilleri, Conway, Larsson, Schenkel, Upson and White

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the new competition (which is open to all):

Latest Reviews:

Euro Crime's Camilleri expert, Norman Price, strikes again as he reviews the latest Montalbano novel - The Paper Moon - which he says is "another little gem";

Geoff Jones reviews the new title from Peter Conway, Deadly Obsession - the latest of his books to contain the theme of "incest and corporal punishment";

Maxine Clarke reviews the paperback edition of The Blood Spilt by Asa Larsson calling it a "rich story" with a slightly unsatisfying ending;

Maxine reviews a short but not sweet offering from Quercus in the shape of Andrea Maria Schenkel's The Murder Farm, a fictionalised version of the real-life murder of a whole family;

I review Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder where Josephine Tey enters the real world of murder in London's West End

and Amanda Gillies calls Fallen Idols by Neil White "a masterpiece".


Current Competition (closing date 30 June):

Win a copy of Death on a Branch Line by Andrew Martin*

* no restrictions on entrants