Different covers for The Postcard Killers

The James Patterson, Liza Marklund collaboration, tr Neil Smith will be published soon in the US. The UK edition is out in September. I thought it might be interesting to see the different approaches taken by the different countries, in particular US and Sweden given the relative fames of the two writers. I rather like the Danish cover.

US/UK-----------------------------------------Swedish (Norwegian & Finnish are very similar)

Danish---------------------------------------------------German

Dutch-----------------------------------------------Italian

Publishing Deal - Thomas Enger

The crime in translation wave continues with Faber announcing a deal for two books from Norwegian author Thomas Enger. In the Bookseller:

Faber has signed a new crime series by Norwegian author Thomas Enger, including his debut Burned, which has been sold into 12 other territories so far. Acquiring Editor Angus Cargill bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Norwegian publisher Gyldendal.

Burned opens with the arrest of a Pakistani immigrant, accused of the Sharia style killing of a Norwegian woman. Cargill said it was a significant acquisition for Faber’s growing crime list, and described Burned as a novel that "combined the thrill of the best page-turner, with a deep psychological portrait of this wonderful character".

Faber will publish Burned in July 2011, to be followed by Phantom Pain in July 2012.

Update: the translator will be Charlotte Barslund who also translates Karin Fossum.

Deadline - cover opinions

Stella Rimington's Deadline is the fourth in her Liz Carlyle series set in Britain's MI5/MI6 milieu.

There are three covers to consider today: the US one on the left which came out in June 2010 (hardback) (the white text says "a novel from the former head of Britain's MI5"), the UK hardback on the right (2008) or the UK paperback (2009, below).

So what are you thoughts on the US and UK covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Stella Rimington? (I think she's probably better known in the UK than US.)

Here is the Euro Crime review, by Norman, of Dead Line.

Green Alley Showdown - Copycat Covers

Spotted this the other day when I was updating the new releases page:



All the Dead Voices came out in 2009 and The Case of the Naught Wife is out 1 November.

New Reviews: Black, Bruce, Cottam, Downie, Leather, Strachan

Two competitions for July and one is open internationally:
Win one of ten copies of Jail Bird by Jessie Keane (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of The Assassin's Prayer by Ariana Franklin (UK & Republic of Ireland only)

Here are this week's reviews, including 3 debut novels:

Michelle Peckham reviews Sean Black's Lockdown the first in a series of thrillers set in America;

Maxine Clarke reviews Alison Bruce's Cambridge Blue the debut appearance for DC Goodhew;

Amanda Gillies reviews, ghost story The Waiting Room by F G Cottam;

Paul Blackburn reviews Ruso and the Root of all Evils by R S (Ruth) Downie published as Persona Non Grata in the US;

Terry Halligan finds himself appearing in Stephen Leather's Rough Justice the latest in the "Spider" series

and don't miss Laura Root's thoughtful review of The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and (a recently expanded list of) forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

International Dagger 2010 - winner

Johan Theorin's The Darkest Room, translated by Marlaine Delargy, which came third on the Euro Crime blog polls, was announced tonight as the winner of the 2010 CWA International Dagger.



The judges said: ‘Four plot strands whorl around the vortex of an unexplained death. It is impossible to reduce this mysterious novel to ghost story, a police procedural or a gothic tale.’

The Euro Crime review is here.

2010 Gold, Fleming & Creasey Awards - Shortlists

The shortlists for the CWA's Gold, Ian Fleming and John Creasey Awards have been announced this afternoon (links are to Euro Crime reviews). More information on each title and the judges can be found on the newly revamped CWA website:

CWA GOLD DAGGER 2010

Conman - Richard Asplin
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
Blood Harvest - S J Bolton
Rain Gods - James Lee Burke
Shadowplay - Karen Campbell
The Strange Case of the Composer and his Judge - Patricia Duncker
Still Midnight - Denise Mina
The Way Home - George Pelecanos

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 2010, SPONSORED BY IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS LTD

61 Hours - Lee Child
A Loyal Spy - Simon Conway
Gone - Mo Hayder
Slow Horses - Mick Herron
The Dying Light - Henry Porter
Innocent - Scott Turow
The Gentlemen’s Hour - Don Winslow

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2010

Martyr - Rory Clements
Acts of Violence - Ryan David Jahn
The Pull of the Moon - Diane Janes
Rupture - Simon Lelic
Stop Me - Richard Jay Parker
Random - Craig Robertson
Cut Short - Leigh Russell
The Holy Thief - William Ryan

The finalists in each category will be announced on Monday 9th August to coincide with the launch of the completely integrated Crime Thriller promotional period which will see posters and stickered books in shops and supermarkets, coverage in the press, and trailers on ITV1 and ITV3. The initiative has the support of leading publishers and highstreet retailers and is now well established as a major industry-wide event.

Ian Rankin news

One of Euro Crime's loyal blog/website followers has written to me asking about the next Ian Rankin book. A look on amazon shows "Untitled Rankin 2 of 2" for 20 October 2011. I then trundled over to Ian's website and found the following information in his latest newsletter.:

Oh, and I need to start thinking of my next book. I owe my publisher a brand new novel by mid-2011, so I need to get my head together for October/November. 2011 should also see some TV activity - both The Complaints and Doors Open have picked up significant interest (scripts for both are underway as I write - but not scripted by me). One’s for BBC, the other ITV. I should have a bit of a say in the casting and the way the scripts pan out - lessons have been learned from the TV version(s) of Rebus.

So no details about the new book but some encouraging tv news.

Poll Results on International Dagger - 2010

The poll have now closed for voting on who you want to and think will win this year's CWA International Dagger. The Dagger winner will be announced tomorrow evening at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. There were around 50% more votes this year compared to 2009.

There were 222 votes in the "want to win" and 157 votes in the "think will win". In both cases the winner was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson followed by Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason though the margin is small in the "want to win" and huge in the "think will win".

The other titles, which are a bit obscured in the snapshot below, are Badfellas (Benacquista), August Heat (Camilleri), Thirteen Hours (Meyer) and The Darkest Room (Theorin).


I will remove the polls in the next couple of days. Many thanks to all those who took part and read the shortlist.

Inspector Morse takes to the Stage

I've just received my Malvern Theatre Autumn brochure and what do I find? That there is an Inspector Morse play - House of Ghosts with Morse played by the former Doctor Colin Baker.

Exactly 35 years after a certain grumpy super-sleuth with an eye for the ladies and a thirst for beer made his first appearance in Colin Dexter's novel Last Bus to Woodstock, he's back…

Inspector Morse takes to the stage in Autumn 2010 in an all-new murder mystery, House of Ghosts. By special arrangement with Colin Dexter and starring Colin Baker (Dr Who) as Morse, Alma Cullen – the writer behind four of the hugely successful ITV episodes and Director Robin Herford (Woman in Black) – bring the inscrutable detective to audiences across the UK in what promises to be one of the theatrical events of the year.

Since Oxford undergraduate days, Morse has regarded theatre director Laurence Baxter as the only truly evil man he has ever met. So what happens when, twenty-odd years later, Morse finds Baxter at the centre of a murder case that involves the on-stage death of a young actress?

A list of tour dates can be found on this Colin Baker website (scroll down to 7.05). The production runs from late August to early December and the venues include (but are not limited to) Richmond, Oxford, Cardiff, Coventry, Malvern, Wolverhampton.

The Merry Misogynist - cover opinions

Colin Cotterill's The Merry Misogynist is the sixth in his Dr Siri Paiboun series set in 1970's Laos.

There are three covers to consider today: the US one on the left which is to be published on 1 August, the UK hardback in purple or the recent UK paperback (below) which marks the beginning of a new look for this series.

So what are you thoughts on the US and UK covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Colin Cotterill?

Here is the Euro Crime review, by Michelle, of The Merry Misogynist.

US -------------------------------------------------UK (HB)

---------------------------------------------UK (PB)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo DVD

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has just been released on R2 DVD. At the moment amazon.co.uk and play.com have it at £10.99.


Official synopsis:
From the literary phenomenon by Stieg Larsson comes this gripping new thriller which will have you guessing right until the very end.

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared off the secluded island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger family. There was no corpse, no witnesses, no evidence. Nearly forty years later a journalist by the name of Mikael Blomqvist gets an unusual assignment. He's contacted by Harriet's uncle, Henrik Vanger, who wants him to find out what really happened to Harriet. Mikael takes on the job, with help from mysterious biker girl and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. This unlikely pair form a fragile bond as they dig into the sinister past of this family and find out just how far they're prepared to go to protect themselves - and each other.

On the Bench - cover theme

I didn't realise when I put these together that there's a pair of copy-cat covers (Borkmann's Point and Run for Home). Never End is a US cover the others are UK.

The Hammett Prize 2010

The Hammett Prize 2010 has just been awarded at Semana Negra, from Reuters:

"the best crime novel written in Spanish, the Hammett Prize - named after U.S. author Dashiel Hammett - went to Argentine novelist Guillermo Orsi, for his book "La Ciudad Santa" (The Holy City).

Orsi's book tells of a cruise ship which runs aground in the wide but shallow River Plate, forcing the wealthy passengers to disembark in Buenos Aires, who then become bait for kidnappers.

"A city which, like many another megalopolis, but above all in South America, is riddled with corruption and violence, makes the perfect setting for a crime writer," Orsi said of the Argentine capital, where he lives.

Though this title is not yet available in English, Orsi's No-One Loves a Policeman tr. Nick Caistor was published in April by MacLehose Press so there is hope that The Holy City will follow.

TV News - Silk & Sherlock

A couple of bits of tv news from last week. Firstly, the BBC announced Silk a new legal drama starring Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones:

Maxine Peake, Rupert Penry-Jones, Natalie Dormer, Tom Hughes and Neil Stuke star in Silk, a thrilling new drama series for BBC One about the lives, loves and hard cases facing barristers on the front line of criminal law, written by Bafta award-winning writer Peter Moffat.

Maxine Peake is Martha Costello, in her thirties, single, passionate and a defence barrister applying for silk. Innocent until proven guilty are four words she lives by. But how does this fundamental principle stand up to examination by clients who are sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes evil?

Martha is faced with challenging cases and surprising clients. Her beliefs and prejudices, her conscience and her faith in the criminal justice system are tested to the limit over the course of the series.

Former barrister Peter Moffat makes a return to BBC One, providing an insider's view into this exciting, morally complex, highly-charged world.

Peter says: "Silk is based on my experience at the bar. I want to tell it as it really is. The extreme pressure, the hard choices, the ethical dilemmas, the overlap between the personal and the professional, principles fought for and principles sacrificed, the Machiavellian politics, the sex, the drinking, the whole story – life at the bar is the richest possible drama territory."

Joining Martha is Clive Reader, played by Rupert Penry-Jones. He's funny, gifted and dangerous. The same age as Martha, they're called to the bar together. Both are applying for silk – how they perform in court is vital to this process and Clive knows how to play the game.

Read the rest of the press release here.

And Steven Moffat's Sherlock starts on BBC1 next Sunday, "featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, Martin Freeman as Dr John Watson and Rupert Graves as Detective Inspector Lestrade". (For once Rupert Graves isn't playing a baddie!)

New Reviews: Cotterill, Fossum, Glynn, McKinty, Russell, Southey

Two competitions for July and one is open internationally:
Win one of ten copies of Jail Bird by Jessie Keane (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of The Assassin's Prayer by Ariana Franklin (UK & Republic of Ireland only)

Here are this week's reviews:

Michelle Peckham reviews Colin Cotterill's The Merry Misogynist in which Dr Siri Paiboun has a serial killer to catch;

I take a look at the new Karin Fossum, Bad Intentions, tr. Charlotte Barslund which covers some familiar Fossum themes;

Maxine Clarke is very impressed with Winterland by Alan Glynn;

Terry Halligan reviews Adrian McKinty's Fifty Grand which has a Cuban detective searching for her father's killer, in Colorado;

Amanda Gillies reviews Leigh Russell's Road Closed, the second in her DI Geraldine Steel series

and Rik Shepherd reviews Secret Lament by Roz Southey set in an 18th century Newcastle whose population includes spirits of the dead.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Publishing Deal - Camilla Lackberg

Good news for US readers of Camilla Lackberg's series, translated by Steven T Murray, as the paperback deal has been agree. From Publishers Weekly:

Pegasus Books has sold paperback rights to Swedish international bestseller Camilla Lackberg’s first three books to Simon & Schuster. S&S’s Free Press and Pocket Books imprints acquired trade paperback and mass market rights to The Ice Princess and Lackberg’s next two books, The Preacher and The Stonecutter. Pegasus released Princess, a bestseller across Europe, in June (and Lackberg was featured in the June 28 PW). The two paperback editions will be released simultaneously by S&S next April.

The UK paperback edition of The Stonecutter will be released in March 2011 along with the hardback release of The Gallows Bird.

Summer read? The Toff at Butlin's

I've been having a clear out of some books that I know I'm never going to read. My tastes have changed over the last 10-15 years so what I bought then, often no longer appeals. I discovered this one and I just love the cover and I'm going to keep it though the pages are brown with age. My edition is 1958 but The Toff at Butlin's came out in 1954. Mr Butlin appears in it apparently and there is also a map of the camp!

In the gay atmosphere of a Holiday Camp, the Toff sets out to find three missing men - and quickly discovers an exciting and eventful trails leading to...murder!

Trailer Thursday - The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

I featured The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant recently on cover opinions. (The cover featured at the end of the trailer below is a third version.) This title is classed as adult in the US and teenage in the UK and my review is here. The UK trailer has just been released:



(One of my cats reacted to the cat miaow in the trailer!)

August Heat - cover opinions

Andrea Camilleri's August Heat tr. Stephen Sartarelli is the final 2010 International Dagger contender to have its covers scrutinised as Badfellas has the same cover for both the US and UK editions. (Previous cover opinion posts can be found here).

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Andrea Camilleri?

Here is the Euro Crime review, by Maxine, of August Heat.



I like both styles of covers but I do feel the UK ones can give too much of the plot away.

Publishing Deal - Jacqueline Winspear

From Publishers Weekly, good news for Maisie Dobbs fans:

Two-time Agatha Award winner and NYT bestselling author Jacqueline Winspear's 9th and 10th novels in the series featuring psychologist and investigator MAISIE DOBBS, again to Jennifer Barth at Harper, in a major deal, by Amy Rennert at the Amy Rennert Agency.

Jacqueline Winspear's euro crime bibliography page is here. The seventh Maisie Dobbs - The Mapping of Love and Death - was published in the US in March. No UK date set, as far as I know.

The Play's the Thing - Deathtrap

Deathtrap by Ira Levin will be on at the Noel Coward Theatre in London later this year. Previews begin on 21st August 2010, with the opening night on 7th September 2010 and it will then run into the new year.

Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Groff star in a new Matthew Warchus production of Ira Levin's comic murder thriller 'Deathtrap'.

Groff plays the part of Clifford, a gifted young writer who befriends Sidney Bruhl (Russell Beale), a best-selling novelist and playwright. He turns up at Bruhl's Connecticut home with a new stage thriller which turns out to be superior to anything Bruhl has done.

Deathtrap took Broadway and the West End by storm in the 1980s and became a hugely succesful motion picture with Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve.

Watch the trailer here.

Website updates - July

The migration of the euro crime database back into MS Access took longer than expected yesterday but it seems to be working ok now and my rusty skills are warming up.

I've just made the following updates to the website. If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know, especially author websites, books coming out etc.

As before, I've refreshed a good portion of the Euro Crime website:

The Author Websites page now lists 835 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1561 authors (8025 titles with links to 1774 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Michael Arnold, Veronyca Bates, Winston Bugle, Clem Chambers, Arne Dahl, James Forrester, Essie Fox, Johnathan Lewis, Graham Moore, Gerry O'Carroll, Martha Ockley, Leif G W Persson, Danielle Ramsay, Eileen Robertson, Bob Shepherd, M Stanford-Smith, Oliver Stark, Mari Strachan, D J Taylor, Alice Thompson, Caspar Walsh and Emily Winslow.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Boris Akunin, M C Beaton, Gyles Brandreth, Bob Burke, Tom Cain, Andrea Camilleri, Alex Chance, Lee Child, Martina Cole, Julie Corbin, Anna Dean, Alex Dryden, Ake Edwardson, Tom Egeland, Geraldine Evans, Ann Featherstone, John Francome, Simon Hall, Titania Hardie, Sam Hayes, Mandasue Heller, Peter Helton, Suzette A Hill, Matt Hilton, Bill James, Philip Kerr, Paul Lawrence, Stephen Leather, Simon Lelic, Stuart MacBride, Adrian Magson, Nigel McCrery, Val McDermid, Grant McKenzie, Jane McLoughlin, Stuart Neville, Catherine O'Flynn, S J Parris, Michael Pearce, Anne Perry, Sarah Rayne, Gerald Seymour, Jarkko Sipila, Andrew Taylor, Johan Theorin, L C Tyler, Cathi Unsworth, Esther Verhoef, Domingo Villar, Jan Costin Wagner, Martin Walker, Jill Paton Walsh, Laura Wilson and Felicity Young.

Upcoming Swedish Crime Fiction

I've begun a new amazon list: Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011. One of the items on the list is Mysterioso by Arne Dahl, tr. Tiina Nunnally which I was reminded of by a commenter on Petrona. It's not yet got a UK release date but the US release date is 15 February 2011.

Synopsis

The first novel in the gripping Intercrime trilogy.

Following a complicated but successful dismantling of a hostage situation, Detective Paul Hjelm is facing the prospect of a potentially career-ending investigation by Internal Affairs. Instead, he finds himself dropped into a new elite team of officers selected from across the country, whose mission is to find an elusive killer who has been targeting Sweden’s business leaders. The killer’s modus operandi: two distinctive shots straight through the head, bullets carefully pulled from the wall—a nighttime ritual enacted with Thelo­nius Monk’s jazz classic Misterioso playing in the background.

As Hjelm, his young partner Jorge Chavez, and the rest of the team follow one lead after another in a frantic search for the killer—navigating the murky world of the Russian Mafia and the secret societies of Sweden’s wealthiest citizens—they must also face one of Sweden’s most persistent ills: a deep-rooted xeno­phobia that affects both police and perpetrator.

Written with great energy, penetrating candor, and dark wit, and populated with characters whose motivations are as nuanced as they are unexpected, Misterioso is an utterly absorbing novel—an arresting introduction to this acclaimed author.

You can read more about it on Arne Dahl's website.

International Dagger Speculation (2011)

I know the winner of the 2010 CWA International Dagger hasn't been announced yet but 2011's official submissions should start arriving soon (I hope) from the publishers.

So here's the list so far of translated crime novels published between June 2010 and May 2011 ie the period of eligibility. There's 52 so far. I expect another few to be added at some point.

For ease of purchase/library reservation here they are listed by UK month of publication:

June 2010
Andrea Camilleri - The Wings of the Sphinx
Donato Carrisi - The Whisperer***************(delayed from May)
Giorgio Faletti - I Kill
Ernesto Mallo - Needle in a Haystack
Dacia Maraini - Train to Budapest
Pierre Siniac - The Collaborators*****

July 2010
Karin Fossum - Bad Intentions
Michele Giuttari - A Death in Calabria
Claude Izner - The Predator of Batignolles*
Marek Krajewski - Phantoms of Breslau
Hakan Nesser - The Inspector and Silence
Luis Miguel Rocha - The Holy Assassin (apa The Holy Bullet)****
Andrea Maria Schenkel - Bunker
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Ashes to Dust

August 2010
Fabrice Bourland - The Baker Street Phantom
Camilla Ceder - Frozen Moment
Tom Egeland - Relic
Shuichi Yoshida - Villain
Jan Costin Wagner - Silence

September 2010
Boris Akunin - He Lover of Death
Pablo de Santis - Voltaire's Calligrapher
Liza Marklund - Postcard Killers (with James Patterson)**
Roslund-Hellstrom - Three Seconds
Valerio Varesi - River of Shadows

October 2010
Roberto Bolano - The Skating Rink
Massimo Carlotto - Bandit Love****
Arnaldur Indridason - Operation Napoleon
Liza Marklund - Red Wolf
Jean-Francois Parot - The Saint-Florentin Murders
Esther Verhoef - Rendezvous

November 2010
Shiro Hamao - The Devil's Disciple************* Moved to July 2011

December 2010
Anne Holt - 1222

January 2011
Claudie Gallay - The Breakers************
Jo Nesbo - The Leopard
Bernhard Schlink - The Gordian Knot
Simone van der Vlugt - Shadow Sister****

February 2011
Alessandro Perissinotto - Blood Sisters*********
Leif GW Persson - Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End
Teresa Solana - A Short Cut to Paradise****
Didier van Cauwelaert's - Unknown (apa Out of My Head)****************

March 2011
Hans-Werner Kettenbach -The Stronger Sex***
Camilla Lackberg - The Gallows Bird
Henning Mankell - The Troubled Man
Ferdinand von Schirach - Crime (short stories so ineligible?) ****************

April 2011
Esmahan Aykol - Hotel Bosphorus**********
Sebastian Fitzek - Splinter***********
Mari Jungstedt - The Dead of Summer********
Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place*******
Domingo Villar - Death on a Galician Shore

May 2011
Jussi Adler-Olsen - Mercy
Fabrice Bourland - The Dream Killer of Paris**************
Alfredo Colitto - Inquisition******
Sissel-Jo Gazan - The Dinosaur Feather************ Moved to June 2011
Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist

* This one may have been in the 2010 list but the publishing date has now moved.
** Not sure if this counts as I suppose it's partly written directly in English and partly translated from Swedish.
*** Added 22.7.10
**** Added 24.7.10
***** Added 2.8.10
****** Added 7.10.10
******* Added 22.10.10
******** Added 23.10.10
********* Added 24.10.10
********** Added 30.10.10
*********** Added 1.11.10
************ Added 12.11.10
************* Added 13.11.10
************** Added 17.11.10
*************** Added 22.11.10
**************** Added 4.3.11

What's in a Title?

Just for a bit of fun, I queried my euro crime database to see what the most popular title names are. There are nearly 9000 titles (so far) in the work in progress that is the (soon to be back in Access, hurrah) database. Two titles were repeated 5 times and 11 appear 4 times. I've restricted my post to these top two places.

Here are the more frequently used titles:

5 Times

Killing Time
Missing

4 Times

Angel of Death
Betrayal
Blood Ties
Cold Blood
Deadline
Innocent Blood
Last Rites
Nemesis
Requiem
Vanishing Point
Written in Blood

A few more statistics: 196 titles have "blood" in them, 567 have "death", 443 have "murder" but only 66 have "crime" and 57 have "mystery" in them.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - cover opinions

Continuing my series of cover opinions about the 2010 International Dagger shortlist, this time it's the turn of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Stieg Larsson, tr. Reg Keeland.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Stieg Larsson? (Note the location of the apostrophe in each case...)

(I've had a number of people come into the library having read #3 first and then reserving the first two.)

Here is the Euro Crime review by Maxine of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest.












Here is an article on the process behind the design of the US cover of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which is in a similar vein to the above.

Henning Mankell on Open Book

Here's another programme to listen to online or download the podcast of, from the BBC Open Book website:

James Naughtie talks to Sweden’s most celebrated literary export: Henning Mankell. He talks about his creation, the detective Kurt Wallander – and his appearance in his fifth novel Sidetracked.

Here is Henning Mankell's Euro Crime bibliography with links to reviews.

New Reviews: Bolton, Leather, Owen, Rickman, Ridpath, Young & New Competitions

Two new competitions for July and one is open internationally:
Win one of ten copies of Jail Bird by Jessie Keane (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of The Assassin's Prayer by Ariana Franklin (UK & Republic of Ireland only)

Here are this week's reviews:

S J Bolton continues her impressive run of stand-alone novels with Blood Harvest reviewed here by Michelle Peckham;

Paul Blackburn reviews the paperback edition of Stephen Leather's supernatural-crime thriller Nightfall;

Laura Root recommends Two Tribes by Charlie Owen if you "fancy a walk on the wild side of the police procedural";

Amanda Gillies heaps praise on Phil Rickman's new venture - Elizabethan crime - in her review of The Bones of Avalon;

Maxine Clarke thoroughly enjoyed Michael Ridpath's Iceland set Where the Shadows Lie

and Kerrie Smith reviews Take Out by Felicity Young set in Perth, Australia.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

New Competition - Jail Bird by Jessie Keane

Euro Crime has ten copies of Jail Bird by Jessie Keane to giveaway. Just answer the simple question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open internationally and will close on 31 July 2010.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winners have been notified.)

Murder, loyalty and vengeance collide in Jessie Keane's gritty fourth novel.

Blonde and beautiful Lily King is back on the scene - and not in a good way. Her family haven't missed her. Her husband, London villain Leo King, certainly hasn't, because he's dead. Lily killed him and did time for it.

At least, that's the story. Everyone believes it. But Lily knows it's not true. She knows she was fitted up by someone close to her.

Now, she's just hit thirty, she's out, and she doesn't do forgiveness.

But in her absence, things have moved on, the old order has changed, and now she's ready to reclaim her position as head of the King family.

Fuelled by vengeance and power, Lily King is back.

London won't know what hit it.

Global Reading Challenge - Update

Time to reveal my Global Reading Challenge progress - I believe I signed myself up for the 'Easy' challenge. There are also medium, expert and extremist levels which you can find detailed on the website.

The Easy Challenge
Read one novel from each of these continents in the course of 2010:
Africa
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America (incl Central America)
South America

From your own continent: try to find a country, state or author that is new to you.

I have linked to reviews of 'new to me' authors. The YA (Teenage) books I've linked to are also in the crime/thriller genre.

Africa
Rift by Beverley Birch (audio book) (YA)

Asia
tbc

Australasia
Conspiracy 365: January by Gabrielle Lord (YA)

Europe
Badfellas by Tonino Benacquista

North America
Theodore Boone by John Grisham (Adult/YA)

South America
Thursday Night Widows by Claudia Pineiro

I haven't decided yet what to read for my Asia setting though I have a couple in mind. Suggestions welcomed both adult and YA crime/thriller.

The Play's the Thing - Sherlock Holmes

The Secret of Sherlock Holmes is to run from 20th July, for eight weeks, at The Duchess theatre in London's 'glittering West End':

Peter Egan and Robert Daws will recreate the partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson on stage when The Secret Of Sherlock Holmes comes to the Duchess theatre from 20 July (previews from 15 July).


Premiered in 1988, Jeremy Paul’s play centres on a seemingly deadly encounter between Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Holmes and his nemesis, arch criminal Professor Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls. As secrets and betrayal are slowly revealed, Watson finds his loyalty and friendship tested to the very limit, Holmes is forced to turn his unswerving powers of deduction upon himself and the true relationship between Holmes and Moriarty is finally revealed.

Tickets can be booked via this website though there may be other ways(!).

2010 Crime Novel of the Year Award - shortlist

The shortlist for the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award has been announced:

In the Dark by Mark Billingham
The Surrogate by Tania Carver
A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

You can see the longlist here.

From the press release:

Now in its sixth year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing, and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback in 2009.

The winner of the prize will be announced by radio broadcaster and festival regular Mark Lawson on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on Thursday 22nd July. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.

Unlike other literary awards, with the Crime Novel of the Year it's what readers think that really counts. Voting reopens from 1st to 21st July to help determine which of the 8 Shortlisted books will go on to take the prize.

Vote now at www.theakstons.co.uk

All votes received at Longlist stage will be reset to zero, so your favourite author will need your help to claim the prize!

The eventual winner will be decided by combining the result of this public vote with the votes of a panel of expert judges: Jenni Murray, BBC Radio 4 broadcaster and author; John Dugdale, Guardian Associate Media Editor; Natalie Haynes, comedian and journalist; and Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd.

Dalziel and Pascoe author Reginald Hill is also set to receive the inaugural Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the prize ceremony on 22nd July.