The shortlist for the International Dagger has just been announced here at CrimeFest. The nominees are:
Andrea Camilleri - The Wings of the Sphinx tr. Stephen Sartarelli
Ernesto Mallo - Needle in a Haystack tr. Jethro Soutar
Jean-Francois Parot - The Saint-Florentin Murders tr. Howard Curtis
Roslund-Hellstrom - Three Seconds tr. Kari Dickson
Valerio Varesi - River of Shadows tr. Joseph Farrell
Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place tr. Sian Reynolds
Domingo Villar - Death on a Galician Shore tr. Sonia Soto
I'll be setting the usual polls up soon. What do you think of the choices?
ooooh, interesting choices! And I've read five of them already, currently reading a sixth. This is a great, and varied list. Well done to the judges ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes--A very worthy 7 --though
ReplyDelete--in my view -not as varied,
as I would have hoped.
I'm glad for both, Villar and Mallo, in the list.
ReplyDeleteI'm not at all impressed with the list. I think Vargas is over-rated but I realize she is a fave with many of the blogger/reviewers. I had read the previous Roslund-H novel and thought it was at most one star - maybe it was a poor translation - but it reminded me of self-published novels. I enjoyed the first 4 or 5 Camilleri's I read but then the series just seemed to stall, so I gave up on it. I never heard of the remaining books, nor did I read any favorable reviews about any of them. Where are the Scans? Where is Nesbo? "A great and varied list" "A very worthy 7". Are you serious???
ReplyDeleteKen in McLean
Dear Ken, yes, I'm serious (I made the great and varied comment). The list can only be as good as the titles the publisher submits (and indeed, the books that are published!). There are quite a few authors on the eligible list that one might have thought would be a shoo-in (eg Mankell) who are not on here. I am not personally a mad keen Vargas fan but am currently reading the one on this list and have to admit it is more readable than many of the other eligible titles. Camilleri isn't as good now as he was a few books ago I agree, but his translator is superb (the notes at the back of these books are wonderful) and this prize is at least in part for the translation. I would say Varesi, Villar and Mallo are interesting, unusual choices, two debuts and a second novel. (I have not read Parot.)
ReplyDeleteVargas overrated!! Camilleri stalled!! Isn't it nice that these shortlists stimulate debate?
ReplyDeleteKen if you haven't heard of Ernesto Mallo or Domingo Villar I can recommend them as new voices in crime fiction. Mallo's debut in English translation is a tense thriller with social commentary, while Villar's slower methodical police procedurals have both humour and fine descriptions of Galicia and its people.
I wonder if Ken has actually read any of these 7? I will admit to being a little disappointed in the list myself due to what it didn't contain (Shuichi Yoshida's VILLAIN and Liza Marklund's RED WOLF being uppermost on my list of translated books from last year and both eligible I believe) but I figure I can't really comment until I have seen what these 7 books have to offer.
ReplyDelete