The Leopard (Harry Hole #8) will come out in the UK in March 2011, and exactly one year later, The Bat Man (Harry Hole #1) will finally be published in English!Sign up for the newsletter on the Jo Nesbo website.
(US cover left)Geoff Jones reviews Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
Maxine Clarke reviews A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah;
Maxine also reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, calling it "marvellous";
Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's debut novel, Random which is published this week;
Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the DI Horton series from Pauline Rowson Blood on the Sand set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight
and Michelle Peckham reviews Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh and reports that it's as enjoyable as Welsh's previous books, The Cutting Room and The Bullet Trick.
It was summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone; and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam. The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, primed for battle in Portsmouth harbour.
Introducing the monk Giodarno Bruno, magician, scientist, and heretic in a new series of historical thrillers for fans of C.J.Sansom and 'The Name of the Rose' England, 1583 A country awash with paranoia and conspiracy -- but a safe haven for a radical monk on the run. Giordano Bruno, with his theories of astronomy and extraterrestrial life, has fled the Inquisition for the court of Elizabeth I. Here, he attracts the attention of Francis Walsingham, chief spymaster and sworn enemy of Catholic plotters. Bruno is sent undercover to Oxford, where the university is believed to be a hotbed of French dissent. Bruno quickly finds himself drawn into college intrigues, and distracted by a beautiful young woman. Before long, he is investigating a hideous series of murders, each linked by a letter offering clues. The letters suggest that each victim was guilty of heresy. But is Bruno being aided or misled - or is he himself the next target? Stalking a cunning and determined killer through the shadowy cloisters of Oxford, Bruno realizes that even the wise cannot always tell truth from heresy. But some are prepared to kill for it!
Religious strife, Glastonbury legends, the bones of King Arthur and the curse of the Tudors...can Renaissance man John Dee help the young Queen Elizabeth to avoid it? It is 1560. Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year, the date for her coronation having been chosen by her astrologer, Dr John Dee, at just 32 already famous throughout Europe as a mathematician and expert in the hidden arts. But neither Elizabeth nor Dee feel entirely secure. Both have known imprisonment for political reasons. The Queen is unpopular with both Roman Catholics and the new breed of puritanical protestant. Dee is regarded with suspicion in an era where the dividing line between science and sorcery is, at best, indistinct. And the assignment he's been given by the Queen's chief minister, Sir William Cecil, will blur it further: ride to the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, bring back King Arthur's bones. The mission takes the mild, bookish Dee to the tangled roots of English magic and the Arthurian legacy so important to the Tudors. Into unexpected violence, spiritual darkness, the breathless stirring of first love...and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth. With him is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card...and possibly the Queen's secret lover. Dee is Elizabethan England's forgotten hero. A man for whom this world - even the rapidly-expanding world of the Renaissance - was never enough.
1592. England and Spain are at war, yet there is peril at home, too. The death of her trusted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has left Queen Elizabeth vulnerable. Conspiracies multiply. The quiet life of John Shakespeare is shattered by a summons from Robert Cecil, the cold but deadly young statesman who dominated the last years of the Queen's long reign, insisting Shakespeare re-enter government service. His mission: to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex. Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, a man of ambition. He woos the Queen, thirty-three years his senior, as if she were a girl his age. She is flattered by him -- despite her loathing for his mother, the beautiful, dangerous Lettice Knollys who presides over her own glittering court -- a dazzling array of the mad, bad, dangerous and disaffected. When John Shakespeare infiltrates this dissolute world he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger -- but that he and his family is also a target. With only his loyal footsoldier Boltfoot Cooper at his side, Shakespeare must face implacable forces who believe themselves above the law: men and women who kill without compunction. And in a world of shifting allegiances, just how far he can trust Robert Cecil, his devious new master?
Elizabeth Tudor is as appalled as everyone else when headless corpses litter the streets of London, but when one of her own ladies is murdered, she vows to stop the killer. Her new friend Simon Maldon wants to help, and they join with a sergeant of the King’s Welsh Guard to investigate. Is the killer Elizabeth’s castellan? A creepy cleric who manages her household accounts? A madman captured on the grounds?
The English title for Hämnden is The Revenge. The synopsis according to HenningMankell.com is:Terry Halligan reviews Among Thieves by David Hosp; though written by an American author and set in the US there is a St Patrick's Day and Irish connection;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
Maxine Clarke reviews Simon Kernick's new thriller The Last Ten Seconds;
Laura Root reviews the paperback release of the latest in the Tony Hill series from Val McDermid, Fever of the Bone;
Amanda Gillies reviews G J Moffat's debut, now out in paperback: Daisychain;
Michelle Peckham reviews the first Adamsberg novel from Fred Vargas, tr. Sian Reynolds, also now out in paperback - The Chalk Circle Man
and Maxine also reviews The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson
Quercus will now be publishing Swedish duo Roslund-Hellstrom beginning this September with Three Seconds translated by Kari Dickson:
One of the audiobooks I've got on the go at the moment is The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg (tr. Steven T Murray) and narrated by Cameron Stewart.
Scandinavian crime writer Liza Marklund's THE RED WOLF, NOBEL'S LAST WILL, LIFETIME and A PLACE IN THE SUN, to Emily Bestler at Atria, in a four-book deal, by Niclas Salomonsson at Salomonsson Agency (US).and also Scott Mariani's who is already published in the UK, will soon be published in the US:
Scott Mariani's THE MOZART CONSPIRACY, pitched in the tradition of Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown, following recurring character former British Special Air Service officer Ben Hope as he gets caught up in a centuries-old mystery surrounding the death of Mozart, along with its follow-up THE DOOMSDAY PROPHECY... for publication in spring 2011.
I would like to let you know that BBC4 has acquired the second season of the Swedish Wallander series (i.e. film 14-26).No news of when BBC4 will show them but great news nonetheless (I hope they repeat the first series again as I'm missing part of an episode...). So thank you so much to David for passing the news on.
From Digital Spy:The Eleventh Hour actor will play the fictional detective across three feature-length dramas which will transmit on BBC One.
Set in and around Rome, and based on the best-selling series of novels by the late Michael Dibdin, Zen will start shooting in Italy in Spring 2010.
And though not euro crime in anyway, the tv drama Castle, starring Nathan Fillion is coming to the Alibi Channel soon.
Here's the lowdown from Alibi:Sir Ian McKellen is to play the title role in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger.Read the whole article at the BBC website.
The James Bond drama will also star Rosamund Pike as Pussy Galore and Toby Stephens as Bond.
Impressionist and actor Alistair McGowan will play the canny caddie, Hawker, during the famous golf scene.
Martin Jarvis, who is also directing the play, is the voice of Fleming, while John Standing appears as M, the head of MI6.
The radio dramatisation will be faithful to the novel rather than the Goldfinger film.
The plot revolves around Bond's pursuit of Auric Goldfinger, an international criminal, who is masterminding a plan to rob Fort Knox.
The play will air on Radio 4 on 3 April.
The out of print first entry in Simon Hall's series - TV Detective (apa A Popular Murder) - is now available free as an e-book from Accent Press. You will need to set up an account to be able to download the pdf for free. Go here.
Also a pdf of Pauline Rowson's In for the Kill can be downloaded from her website.
Laura Root reviews The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett, the fourth in this Thailand based series;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
Michelle Peckham reviews Mo Hayder's Gone, the newest in the Jack Caffery series, now set in Bristol;
Maxine Clarke reviews one of this month's competition prizes, The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg, tr. Steven T Murray;
Terry Halligan reviews Nightfall by Stephen Leather the first in a new paranormal-sounding series;
Pat Austin reviews Shona Maclean's second book in her historical series: A Game of Sorrows
and Craig Sisterson reviews Self's Murder by Bernhard Schlink, tr. Peter Constantine
Buy two paperbacks £9.99 or under (excluding childrens, reference, travel or academic books) and get the cheaper book free.More details and terms and conditions can be found here.
Vouchers will run from 4-7 March 2010 and can be redeemed up to and including 10 March 2010.
All childrens books including those with adult crossover appeal are excluded from this offer.
Georgina BallThe prizes are on their way.
Robin Brooksbank
Angela Robinson
Award-winning political thriller set in 1980s East Germany. Captain Wiesler works for the Stasi, the secret police, and is asked to keep surveillance on a playwright, Georg Dreyman, whose loyalty to the party is under question. During the surveillance Weisler is slowly drawn into Georg's life and begins to question his own ideals.
