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Monday, April 30, 2012

CWA Ellis Peters (Historical) Dagger Speculation

Following on from my posts about the International Dagger and the John Creasey Dagger here are the titles that are eligible for the Ellis Peters/Historical Dagger award. The eligibility period has been brought into line with the other Daggers ie June-May and the shortlist will be announced at Crimefest in May.

The list below contains over 100 titles and this is only those titles with a "Euro" interest...:
Boris Akunin - The Diamond Chariot
Michael Arnold - Devil's Charge
Elizabeth Bailey - The Gilded Shroud
Carrie A Bebris - The Deception at Lyme
Nancy Bilyeau - The Crown
Benjamin Black - A Death in Summer
Richard Blake - The Sword of Damascus
Sam Bourne - Pantheon
Alan Bradley - I Am Half Sick of Shadows
Conor Brady - A June Of Ordinary Murders
Gyles Brandreth - Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders
Simon Brett - Blotto, Twinks and the Rodents of Riviera
Frances Brody - Murder in the Afternoon
Fiona Buckley - Queen Without A Crown
Fiona Buckley - Queen's Bounty
Kenneth Cameron - Winter at Death's Hotel
Cassandra Clark - A Parliament of Spies
Rory Clements - Traitor
Barbara Cleverly - The Blood Royal
Peter James Cottrell - England's Janissary
Kate Darby - The Whores' Asylum
Maurizio De Giovanni - I Will Have Vengeance
David Dickinson - Death at the Jesus Hospital
Paul Doherty - Bloodstone
David Downing - Lehrter Station
Nick Drake - Egypt: The Book of Chaos
Carola Dunn - Gone West
Jeremy Duns - The Moscow Option
Patrick Easter - The River of Fire
Sam Eastland - Siberian Red (apa Archive 17)
Mark Ellis - Princes Gate
Gordon Ferris - Bitter Water
James Fleming - Rising Blood
James Forrester - The Roots of Betrayal
Guy Fraser - Tomb of the Serpent
Margaret Frazer - The Murderer's Tale
Juan Gomez-Jurado - The Traitor's Emblem
Philip Gooden - The Ely Testament
Jason Goodwin - An Evil Eye
Dolores Gordon-Smith - Trouble Brewing
Susanna Gregory - The Piccadilly Plot
Susanna Gregory - Mystery in the Minster
Patricia Hall - Death Trap
Cora Harrison - Deed of Murder
Cora Harrison - Laws in Conflict
Tony/Anthony Hays - The Killing Way
Anthony Horowitz - The House of Silk
Claude Izner - Strangled in Paris
Dan James - Unsinkable
P D James - Death Comes to Pemberley
Michael Jecks - King's Gold
J Sydney Jones - The Silence
Susanna Jones - When Nights Were Cold
Philip Kerr - Prague Fatale
Laurie R King - Pirate King
Bernard Knight - Grounds for Appeal
Alanna Knight - The Seal King Murders
Alanna Knight - Deadly Legacy
Bernard Knight - Dead in the Dog
Deryn Lake - Death at the Wedding Feast
Janet Laurence - Deadly Inheritance
T S Learner - The Map
Giulio Leoni - The Crusade of Darkness
Shona Maclean - Crucible of Secrets
Susan Elia MacNeal - Mr Churchill's Secretary
Adrian Magson - Death on the Rive Nord
Edward Marston - A Bespoke Murder
Edward Marston - The Stationmaster's Farewell
James McGee - The Blooding
Pat McIntosh - The Counterfeit Madam
Shirley McKay - Time & Tide
The Medieval Murderers - Hill of Bones
Danny Miller - The Guilded Edge
Mark Mills - House of the Hanged (apa House of the Hunted)
Aly Monroe - Icelight
Ian Morson - A Deadly Injustice
Colin Murray - September Song
Chris Nickson - The Constant Lovers
Felix Palma - The Map of Time
S J Parris - Sacrilege
Ben Pastor - Liar Moon
Caro Peacock - Keeping Bad Company
Caro Peacock - When the Devil Drives
Anne Perry - A Christmas Homecoming
Anne Perry - A Sunless Sea
Anne Perry - Dorchester Terrace
Imogen Robertson - Circle of Shadows
Jean Rowden - Gone Astray
Rosemary Rowe - A Whispering of Spies
Norman Russell - Bills of Mortality
William Ryan - The Bloody Meadow (apa The Darkening Field)
Mark Sanderson - The Whispering Gallery
Alex Scarrow - The Candle Man
Kate Sedley - The Tintern Treasure
Lloyd Shepherd - The English Monster
Lynn Shepherd - Tom-All-Alone's (apa The Solitary House)
Sara Sheridan - Brighton Belle
Philip Sington - The Valley of the Unknowing
Dan Smith - The Child Thief
Tom Rob Smith - Agent 6
Roz Southey - Airs and Graces
Sally Spencer - Blackstone and the Great War
M Stanford-Smith - Sea of Troubles
Sara Stockbridge - Cross My Palm
Linda Stratmann - The Daughters of Gentlemen
D J Taylor - Secondhand Daylight
June Thomson - The Secret Archives of Sherlock Holmes
Peter Tremayne - Behold a Pale Horse
M J Trow - Silent Court
Nicola Upson - Fear in the Sunlight
Christopher Wakling - The Devil's Mask
VM Whitworth - The Bone Thief
Kate Williams - The Pleasures of Men
Elizabeth Wilson - The Girl in Berlin
Laura Wilson - A Willing Victim
Robert Wilton - The Emperor's Gold
Jacqueline Winspear - A Lesson in Secrets
Jacqueline Winspear - The Mapping of Love and Death

Sunday, April 29, 2012

New Reviews: Bonnot, Brody, Camilleri, Clements, Dunne, Ferris, Heller, Lackberg, Toyne

During April (closes 30th) you can enter a competition to win a copy of Julia Crouch's Every Vow You Break. There are no geographical restrictions. Answer the question and fill in the form here.

Here are this week's reviews of which there are 9 again. There are also more updates to the new releases pages (see below):
Laura Root reviews Xavier-Marie Bonnot's The Voice of the Spirits, tr. Justin Phipps, the third book to feature Marseilles inspector De Palma;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Frances Brody's third Kate Shackleton mystery Murder in the Afternoon now out in trade paperback;

Maxine Clarke reviews Andrea Camilleri's The Potter's Field, tr. Stephen Sartarelli - "an excellent book";

Susan White reviews Prince by Rory Clements, the third in the Tudor John Shakespeare series which is now out in paperback;

Geoff Jones reviews Steven Dunne's Deity, the third in his Derby based DI Brook series;

Terry Halligan reviews Gordon Ferris's second Douglas Brodie outing, Bitter Water set in Glasgow;

Lynn Harvey reviews Mandasue Heller's Manchester based Lost Angel which should appeal to Martina Cole fans;

Rich Westwood reviews the paperback release of Camilla Lackberg's The Gallows Bird, now titled The Stranger, tr. Steven T Murray

and Amanda Gillies reviews Simon Toyne's sequel to Sanctus, The Key.
Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. Titles by Simon Brett, Frances Brody, Anders de la Motte, Anna Dean, Barry Fantoni, Casey Hill, Juris Jurjevics, Pia Juul, Lars Kepler, Adrian Magson, Pat McIntosh, Russel D McLean, Theresa Murphy, J A O'Brien, Jean-Francois Parot, Stella Rimington, Sara Sheridan, Martin Walker, Evonne Wareham and Carlos Zanon have been added to these pages this week.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Gillian Linscott writing as Caro Peacock


A few years ago I was musing on the identity of Caro Peacock and after some investigation I discovered it was Gillian Linscott.

It seems that her new publisher Severn House are (correctly) capitalising on Ms Linscott's excellent reputation...

Bibliographies for: Caro Peacock and Gillian Linscott.

Edgar Awards

The Edgar Award winners have been announced and the Best Novel category, with its high percentage of "Euro Crime" authors, has been won by Mo Hayder for Gone:

Winner:

Gone by Mo Hayder (Grove/Atlantic - Atlantic  Monthly Press)

Other Nominees:

The Ranger by Ace Atkins (Penguin Group USA -  G.P. Putnam's Sons)

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino  (Minotaur Books) tr. translated by  Alexander O Smith & Elye J Alexander

1222 by Anne Holt (Simon & Schuster -  Scribner) tr. Marlaine Delargy

Field Gray by Philip Kerr (Penguin Group USA -  G.P. Putnam's Sons - Marion Wood Books)

The complete list of categories, nominees and winners can be found on the Edgars website.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Publishing Deal - Anders de la Motte

Just spotted this on twitter, (retweeted by its translator Neil Smith) - a new in English Swedish crime fiction trilogy by Anders de la Motte has been snapped up by a US publisher. The first part, The Game, will be out in 2013:


Update: UK publication will be by Blue Door, hopefully also in 2013.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

DVD News: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (remake)

The R2 DVD of the English language remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be released on Monday.

The only special feature mentioned (on play.com) is an audio commentary with the director David Fincher.

I haven't seen this version yet but am vaguely curious. I will probably rent it from the library when it comes in.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Speculation (2012)

My fellow crime blogger, crimeficreader, at It's a Crime!, is one of the judges for the CWA John Creasey Dagger so I thought I would try and provide a similar, though not as comprehensive sadly as my International Dagger eligibles, list of eligibles for this dagger.

The criteria for eligibility is (from the CWA's website):

This award is for the best crime novel by a first-time author of any nationality first published in the UK in English during the Judging Period. ‘Best crime novel by a first time author’ means that the author must not have had a novel of any sort published before under any name whatsoever. In the case of novels with more than one author, all the authors must meet this requirement.
(The Judging Period runs from June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012 inclusive. )


"Euro"

Geraint Anderson - Just Business (6/11)
George Arion - Attack in the Library (11/11)
M K Bates - The Little Girl of the Favela (7/11)
Anouar Benmalek - Abduction, tr. Simon Pare (9/11)
Tom Benn - The Doll Princess (1/12)
Nancy Bilyeau - The Crown (1/12)
Laurent Binet - HHrH (5/12)
Horst Bosetzky - Cold Angel: Murder in Berlin, 1949 (2/12)
Conor Brady - A June Of Ordinary Murders (2/12)
Constance Briscoe - The Accused (8/11)
Peter James Cottrell - England's Janissary (2/12)
James Craig - London Calling (6/11)
Howard Cunnell - The Sea on Fire (apa Marine Boy) (3/12)
Kate Darby - The Whores' Asylum (2/12)
Jason Dean - The Wrong Man (5/12)
Maurizio De Giovanni - I Will Have Vengeance tr. Anne Milano Appel (2/12)
Hannah Dennison - A Vicky Hill Exclusive (5/12)
Zoran Drvenkar - Sorry tr. Shaun Whiteside (3/12)
Matthew Dunn - Spartan (apa Spycatcher) (8/11)
Elanor Dymott - Every Contact Leaves A Trace (4/12)
Thomas Enger - Burned tr. Charlotte Barslund (7/11)
Kjell Eriksson - The Hand That Trembles tr. Ebba Segerberg (10/11)
Kjell Eriksson- The Princess of Burundi tr. Ebba Segerberg (10/11)
Sergios Gakas - Ashes tr. Anne-Marie Stanton-Ife (7/11)
Sissel-Jo Gazan - The Dinosaur Feather tr. Charlotte Barslund (6/11 moved from May 2011)
Andrea Gillies - The White Lie (2/12)
Penny Hancock - Tideline (apa Kept in the Dark) (1/12)
Mari Hannah - The Murder Wall (4/12)
Tessa Harris - The Anatomist's Apprentice (12/11)
Annie Hauxwell - In Her Blood (5/12)
Keigo Higashino - The Devotion of Suspect X tr. Alexander O Smith & Elye J Alexander (7/11)
Antonio Hill - The Summer of Dead Toys (5/12)
Jørn Lier Horst - Dregs tr. Anne Bruce (8/11)
Bogdan Hrib - Kill the General (9/11)
Fabrice Humbert - The Origin of Violence, tr. Frank Wynne (12/11)
Ewart Hutton - Good People (2/12)
Bernhard Jaumann - The Hour of the Jackal tr. John Brownjohn (8/11)
Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon - The Eyes of Lira Kazan (4/12)
Mons Kallentoft - Midwinter Sacrifice tr. Neil Smith (10/11)
A J Kazinski - The Last Good Man tr. Tiina Nunnally (3/12)
Graeme Kent - Devil-Devil (6/11)
Clea Koff - Freezing (8/11)
Hans Koppel - She's Never Coming Back tr. Kari Dickson (1/12)
Jens Lapidus - Easy Money tr. Astri von Arbin Ahlander (11/11)
Charlotte Link - The Other Child tr. Stefan Tobler (3/12)
Anya Lipska - Where the Devil Can't Go (11/11) (not eligible?)
Claire McGowan - The Fall (2/12)
Matt McGuire - Dark Dawn (4/12)
Susan Elia MacNeal - Mr Churchill's Secretary (4/12)
David Mark - The Dark Winter (3/12)
Louise Millar - The Playdate (4/12)
Harri Nykanen - Nights of Awe tr. Kristian London (2/12)
Laurence O'Bryan - The Istanbul Puzzle (1/12)
Kristina Ohlsson - Unwanted tr. Sarah Death (9/11)
Chris Pavone - The Expats (3/12)
Mark Peterson - Flesh and Blood (4/12)
Joanna Price - A Means of Escape (11/11)
Anna Raverat - Signs of Life (4/12)
Jacqui Rose - Taken (3/12)
Lloyd Shepherd - The English Monster (3/12)
Dag Solstad - Professor Andersen's Night tr. Agnes Scott Langeland (11/11)
Oana Stoica-Mujea - Anatomical Clues (12/11)
Stefan Tegenfalk - Anger Mode (8/11)
Marco Vichi - Death in August tr. Stephen Sartarelli (6/11)
Evonne Wareham - Never Coming Home (3/12)
Jan Merete Weiss - These Dark Things (7/11)
VM Whitworth - The Bone Thief (2/12)
Robert Wilton - The Emperor's Gold (6/11)
Non-Euro
(These are ones I've spotted but I'm sure there are loads more!)

Alice LaPlante - Turn of Mind (July 11)
Todd Ritter - Death Notice (Dec 11)
Paul McEuen - Spiral (Dec 11)
Cara Hoffman - So Much Pretty (Feb 12)
Mark Allen Smith - The Inquisitor (Feb 12)
Wiley Cash - A land more kind than home (Mar 12)
Sean Hemingway - The Tomb of Alexander (Mar 12)
Robert Pobi - Bloodman (Mar 12)
M L Stedman - The Light Between Oceans (Apr 12)
Terry Hayes - I am Pilgrim (May 12)
Lisa Brackman - Year of the Tiger (May 12)
Tom Wright - What Dies in Summer (May 12)

Monday, April 16, 2012

Dagger in the Library - Longlist

The longlist for the 2012 CWA Dagger in the Library has been announced. Firstly, here's a bit of information on the award from the CWA's website:

Authors like Val McDermid and Ian Rankin are well-known amongst the readers of crime fiction but, beneath the top rank of bestsellers are a host of writers, some new and some who have built loyal followings over the years but who have never quite broken through. It is to give a boost to these authors that the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in the Library Award exists. Again kindly sponsored by the publishers, Random House, the Dagger is awarded to a writer nominated by library users and chosen by a panel of librarians, all of whom work with the public.

Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library is awarded not for an individual book but for the author’s body of work. Last year’s winner was Mo Hayder, and previous winners have included Colin Cotterill, Stuart MacBride and Craig Russell; whilst Lesley Horton and C J Sansom have been Highly Commended.

The nominated authors must be alive, preferably working in Britain and cannot have won the award before. As the award is for a body of work, authors should have published at least three books. Entries from reading groups or individuals are submitted through libraries.
[drumroll]...the longlisted authors are:

(links are to the Euro Crime website's bibliographies pages with reviews of many of the authors' titles)
The shortlist will be announced on 15 May at CrimeFest and the winner on 5 July 2012.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

New Reviews: James, Link, Persson, Russell, Ryan, Shepherd, Spedding, Steinhauer, Varesi

During April you can enter a competition to win a copy of Julia Crouch's Every Vow You Break. There are no geographical restrictions.

Answer the question and fill in the form here.

Here are this week's reviews of which there are 9 again this week as I'm taking next weekend off. There are also plenty of updates to the new releases pages (see below):
Susan White reviews Dan James's (aka Dan Waddell's) Unsinkable set on the Titanic;

Maxine Clarke reviews Charlotte Link's The Other Child, tr. Stefan Tobler set in Scarborough;

Laura Root reviews Leif GW Persson's Another Time, Another Life tr. Paul Norlen, the second in the "Story of a Crime" trilogy;

Amanda Gillies reviews the paperback release of Craig Russell's A Fear of Dark Water which is the latest in the Jan Fabel series;

Rich Westwood reviews William Ryan's The Holy Thief, the first in his Captain Alexei Dmitriyevich Korolev series, set in 1936;

Terry Halligan reviews Lloyd Shepherd's debut, a historical crime novel - The English Monster, calling it "superb";

Geoff Jones reviews Sally Spedding's creepy thriller Cold Remains;

Lynn Harvey reviews Olen Steinhauer's "gripping" globe-trotting spy thriller An American Spy

and Michelle Peckham reviews Valerio Varesi follow-up to his International Dagger short-listed River of Shadows, The Dark Valley tr. Joseph Farrell.
Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year. Titles by Elizabeth Bailey, M C Beaton, C C Benison, Rhys Bowen, Audrey Braun, Alison Bruce, Tania Carver, Kimberley Chambers, Lee Child, Sam Christer, Elizabeth J Duncan, Carola Dunn, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Charles Finch, Friis & Kaaberbol, Frances Fyfield, Eliza Graham, Susanna Gregory, Helene Gremillon, Penny Hancock, Anne Holt, Will Jordan, Ali Knight, Stephen Leather, M L Longworth, G M Malliet, Edward Marston, Peter May, Andy McNab, Fergus McNeill, Regina O’Melveny, Andrea Penrose, Anne Perry, Ann Purser, Rob Ryan, Lloyd Shepherd, A K Shevchenko, Eva Maria Staal, Nick Stone, Peter Tickler, Simon Tolkien, Lee Weeks, Jeri Westerson and Timothy Williams have been added to these pages this week.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Sky Atlantic says Hello to Jason Isaacs's Awake

Great news this, after hearing all abut it on the BBC's flagship film programme, Wittertainment aka Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's Film Reviews, it's been announced that Jason Isaacs' Awake will air on Sky Atlantic this Spring.


Awake features Isaacs, who has appeared in films including Harry Potter and The Patriot, as a detective who survives a serious car accident only to then find he is living simultaneously in two parallel worlds.

In one world his wife dies and son lives, in the other it is his wife who lives and son who dies.

Trailer:

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Death in the Caribbean

Timothy Williams' Another Sun which was first published in 2011 in France (and was written in French originally) gets its English language debut in October 2012.

If it ever got televised then surely Camille (Sara Martins) from the BBC's Murder in Paradise, set on the fictional island of Saint-Marie but filmed on Guadeloupe, would be a contender for the role of Anne Marie Laveaud?


French judge Anne Marie Laveaud has to rethink her murder investigation techniques when she is assigned to the tiny French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

On a plantation in the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, a man's body is found in a pond, riddled with bullets. The victim is Monsieur Calais, a wealthy land-owner. Within twenty-four hours, a suspect is arrested. He had been making death threats against Calais, claiming that land had been stolen from him, and the gun used to shoot Calais was found buried on his property. This, coupled with the fact that the man had just returned from a forty-year exile in French Guyana for murdering his wife, is enough to convince the gendarmes of his guilt.

Anne Marie Laveaud, a French-born judge who has recently been transferred to Guadeloupe, is called in to make a ruling. With a keen sense of compassion for the accused, she must navigate the world of Caribbean justice—very different from what she was used to in France—to confirm her suspicion that all is not as it seems.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Publishing Deal - M D Villiers

I've received this press release today with details of a publishing deal for M D Villiers:
Alison Hennessey, Senior Crime Editor at Harvill Secker, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights including Canada for two books from debut crime author M. D. Villiers. The first book will be titled Western Deep.

Alison Hennessey at Harvill Secker says: ‘Western Deep is an incredibly compelling read, with a central character you’re rooting for from the very first page. Everyone I have shared it with so far here at Random House has fallen in love with Martie’s writing, and I know that she has a very bright career ahead of her.’

M. D. Villiers was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger in 2007.

McCarthy Letswe, notorious South African crime lord, has returned to Johannesburg after several years in exile, determined to wreak his revenge on Abaju, the Nigerian gangster responsible for Letswe’s departure, who has now taken his place at the head of the criminal hierarchy. Caught up in the turf war between the two ruthless gang leaders is Siphiwe – a 19 year old orphan determined not to let the brutality around him detract from his dreams of a better life. But as the violence on the streets intensifies, and the danger to those he loves most increases, Siphiwe is soon forced to seek help amongst criminals and police alike.

DVD News: Those Who Kill

I confess I have this series stored on my Sky+ box, along with Borgen, Braquo and Montalbano!

It's recently been released on DVD, at around £18 online.

Criminal commissioner Katrina Ries Jensen and legal psychiatrist Thomas Schaeffer are part of a unique police unit investigating a series of gruesome serial killings.. In each case they face dangerous threats in the race to uncover the bizarre motives and patterns of the killer. Only once they have an understanding of the victims and of the killer's psychology can they hope to catch him.

Based on an original idea by best-selling Danish crime novelist Elsebeth Egholm, Those Who Kill is a gripping crime thriller that will keep you guessing.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Montalbano's tenth

The next and final episode in the current run of of Inspector Montalbano, at 9pm on 14 April, is The Goldfinch and the Cat, which is not based on any of the books in Camilleri's series but is presumably based on a Camilleri short story.

A series of mysterious muggings takes place in Vigata, ending in tragedy when one of the victims is killed. Meanwhile, a man virtually destroys the emergency room at the hospital after finding out that his young daughter is pregnant. A local doctor is also missing and presumed dead. Montalbano investigates all three cases, gradually uncovering the links between them.

Monday, April 09, 2012

Poster Frenzy

This was taken a few days ago (before the new Jenny Colgan book took over - pink everywhere). It's at Four Oaks station in North Birmingham. Mark Billingham's Good as Dead bracketing Jo Nesbo's Phantom and the film of (his) Headhunters:

Sunday, April 08, 2012

New Reviews: Chattam, Goddard, Hochgatterer, Kerr, Leon, McGuire, Nesser, Tremayne, Wareham & New Competition

New month, new competition time. During April you can enter a competition to win a copy of Julia Crouch's Every Vow You Break. There are no geographical restrictions.

Answer the question and fill in the form here.

Here are this week's reviews:
I recently reviewed on the blog Maxime Chattam's novella, Carnage, tr. Isabel Reid and Emily Boyce which is about school massacres in New York;

Geoff Jones reviews the new title from Robert Goddard Fault Line set in Cornwall and Capri;

Lynn Harvey reviews the paperback release of Paulus Hochgatterer's The Sweetness of Life, tr. Jamie Bulloch, the first in the Austrian "Kovacs and Horn" series;

Laura Root reviews Philip Kerr's latest Bernie Gunther novel, Prague Fatale stating that it's "quite simply, an excellent novel";

Michelle Peckham reviews Donna Leon's Beastly Things, the twenty-first outing for Venice policeman Brunetti;

Terry Halligan reviews Matt McGuire's debut, set in Belfast, Dark Dawn writing that the lead character "O'Neill is a great creation";

Maxine Clarke reviews Hakan Nesser's latest Van Veeteren (and team) Hour of the Wolf, tr. Laurie Thompson which she highly recommends;

Sister Fidelma's has her twentieth adventure in Peter Tremayne's Behold a Pale Horse reviewed here by Amanda Gillies

and Lizzie Hayes recommends Evonne Wareham's debut novel, Never Coming Home to those who like romance along with a good mystery.
Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Aifric Campbell, Kate Darby, Matthew Dunn, Sam Eastland, Ewart Hutton, Michael Marshall, Val McDermid, Shirley McKay, Louise Millar, Denise Mina, Niamh O'Connor, Marco Vichi, Voss & Edwards and Tom Winship have been added to these pages this week.

Win: Every Vow You Break by Julia Crouch

Thanks to the generosity of Headline, Euro Crime has five copies of Every Vow You Break by Julia Couch to giveaway.

To enter the draw, just answer the question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to residents of the world and will close on 30 April 2012.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winners have been notified.)

The Wayland family - Lara and Marcus and their three children - leave England to spend a long, hot summer in Trout Island, Upstate New York. Lara, still reeling from an abortion that Marcus insisted on, hopes the summer away from home will give her time to learn to love her husband again.

A chance meeting at a party reacquaints the family with Marcus's old actor friend, Stephen, with whom Lara once had an affair. Lara feels herself drawn towards Stephen and they pick up their secret relationship where they left off. Lara knows she's playing a dangerous game; what she doesn't know is that it's also a deadly one.


Friday, April 06, 2012

Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking

To further the pleasure in reading Scandinavian crime fiction, why not surround yourself with authentic food at the same time....

The new Hodder catalogue lists Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen, out 5 July 2012:

Discover the secrets of great baking with Scandilicious flair...Scandinavian baking is among the best in the world. Deeply ingrained in the culture, it is a distinctive part of the Nordic identity, history and well-being. Welcome to a place where cakes made with real butter are celebrated rather than feared, where entire festivals are dedicated to baking and where it is believed there is nothing quite like the thrill of making one's own bread, Christmas biscuits or cardamom buns. Signe Johansen shares with us a mouth-watering selection of traditional and modern baked treats. Think moreish muesli bread hot from the oven; pumpkin, cheese and sage muffins that pack a real flavour punch; and irresistible redcurrant mazarin tart or upside-down blueberry cake - perfect for summer entertaining.


which is a sequel to last year's Scandilicious:

We've long looked south for our food inspiration - but what about our neighbours to the north? We share a climate, a history (those Vikings got everywhere) and a love of cool, from sleek Nordic design to clear frosty November mornings. We also share our love of the outdoors - bracing autumn days, bright spring mornings, lazy summers by the water and long winter walks - and the pleasure of sharing good food with friends around the kitchen table. Discover the secrets of Scandinavian cooking - from delicious healthy breakfasts and leisurely brunches to tasty suppers and plenty of stress-free crowd-pleaser puddings. Learn the knack of putting together the perfect smorrebrod for a speedy Scandi lunch, and discover some very more-ish cakes and biscuits to accompany your afternoon cuppa. From cinnamon chestnut bread, cardamom cream buns and home-made gravadlax to soups, salads, smoothies and much more, Signe Johansen, a young cook steeped in the traditions of Scandinavia and trained by the best British chefs, shows us that it's not all herrings and meatballs...although you will find them in here too. Fresh, light, surprisingly indulgent, this is food to lift your spirits - it's quite simply Scandilicious!

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Film News: Babycall

Norwegian thriller Babycall starring Noomi Rapace has just been released in the UK

Synopsis:
Anna and her eight year old son Anders are under the witness protection program following a difficult relationship with Anders' father. They move into a large apartment complex. Anna becomes overprotective of her son and even buys a babycall to keep track of him. Soon, strange noises from other apartments appear on the monitor, and Anna overhears what might be the murder of a child. Meanwhile, Anders' mysterious new friend starts visiting at odd hours, claiming that he has keys for all the doors in the building... Does this new friend know anything about the murder? And why is Anders' drawing stained with blood? Is Anna's son still in danger?



Trailer



Should you have difficulty tracking it down in your local cinema, it will be available on DVD on 4 June 2012.

Film News: Switch

Switch, a crime drama starring Eric Cantona and co-written by crime writer Jean-Christophe Grangé has just been released in the UK:

Synopsis from IMDB:
In Montreal, the unemployed fashion designer Sophie Malaterre is summoned by Claire Maras to show her work to her boss. When Sophie arrives in the company, Clare apologizes and tells that her boss is on vacation and will return only two months later. Clare invites Sophie to have lunch with her and tells Sophie about the website switch.com, where it is possible to switch houses with a stranger for vacation. Sophie seeks an apartment in Paris nearby the Eiffel Tower that belongs to Bénédicte Serteaux and they change apartments. Sophie arrives in Paris on Saturday morning and has a dream day riding a bicycle through the tourist area. However, on the next morning, policemen break in the apartment and arrest Sophie while she is having a bath. Detective Damien Forgeat interrogates Sophie believing that she is Bénédicte and she learns that a beheaded body was found in her room. Further, all the evidences of her life has been deleted and she can not prove that she is Sophie.



However in the unlikely event that Switch is not shown in your area...then it will be out on DVD on 9 April with the tag line:

"The Fugitive meets The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"...

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Set the Recorder: Braquo Series 2

The second series of French crime drama Braquo will be start on FX (UK) on 29 April at 10pm:

Braquo series 2 comes exclusively to FX and is set to be darker,grittier and a whole lot more violent.

This season, the game is up for hard-hitting cops Caplan, Morlighem, Roxanne and Vachewski. Caplan is put on remand, Morlighem and Roxanne are reassigned to junior posts and Théo Vachewski is forced to kiss his badge goodbye...for good!

As with series 1 there will be 8 episodes. The official French website is here.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

New UK paperbacks for April 2012

From The Bookseller's April Paperback Preview (in the 16/23/30 December edition), crime titles published in paperback this month include:

"Euro-Crime" Authors

1st April

Gordon Ferris - Truth Dare Kill

5th April

Alan Glynn - Bloodland
Simon Lewis - Border Run
Shirley McKay - Time and Tide
Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place


12th April

S J Bolton - Now You See Me
Will Carver - The Two
Kimberley Chambers - The Schemer
Nick Drake - Egypt: The Book of Chaos
Jeremy Duns - The Moscow Option
Anton Gill - The Sacred Scroll
Mari Hannah - The Murder Wall
Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist
S(hona) G MacLean - Crucible
Hakan Nesser - The Unlucky Lottery
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - The Day is Dark


26th April

Alex Dryden - Death in Siberia
Louise Millar - The Playdate
Niamh O'Connor - Taken
Danielle Ramsay - Vanishing Point
Gerald Seymour - A Deniable Death
Marco Vichi - Death and the Olive Grove
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Midnight Palace

30th April

Adrian Magson - Death on the Rive Nord


US Authors

Steve Berry - The Jefferson Key (12th)
Lisa Brackman - Year of the Tiger (26th)
Sandra Brown - Lethal (26th)
Patricia Cornwell - Red Mist (26th)
Andrew Gross - 15 Seconds (26th)
Alice LaPlante - Turn of Mind (5th)
James Patterson & Neil McMahon - Toys (12th)
Preston & Child - Gideon's Sword (26th)
S J Rozan - Blood Rites (12th)


Other

Shamini Flint - Inspector Singh Investigates: A Curious Indian Cadaver (5th)


A list of "Euro-Crime" books that are being published for the first time in April can be found on the New Releases page on the website. This is a first publication anywhere in the world, rather than UK specific.

For titles that are published in the UK during 2012, there is a separate list here. This is also available for the following sub-categories: Translated, Historical, First Novel (Debut) and Anthology.

Monday, April 02, 2012

Inspector Montalbano's Sense of Smell

The next and ninth episode of Inspector Montalbano, at 9pm on 7 April, is The Scent of the Night, which is based on the sixth book in Camilleri's series.

Investor Emanuele Gargano has disappeared with the savings entrusted to him by the people of Montelusa. Montalbano's investigation brings him into contact with some of Gargano's staff - his obsessively loyal secretary Mariastella Cosentino and the provocative Michela Manganaro. Meanwhile, Augello is getting cold feet about the prospect of his wedding.