OT: Caturday: Foxy thinks he's human

It seems Foxy understands the concept of pillows.

Review: Bryant & May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler (audio book)

Bryant & May Off the Rails by Christopher Fowler read by Tim Goodman, Whole Story Audiobooks, April 2011, 9 CDs, ISBN: 9781407472713

Bryant & May Off the Rails is the eighth in this series which features London's Peculier Crime's Unit (the PCU) headed up by London's two most ancient detectives Arthur Bryant and John May. Fast friends but with completely different ways of working.

Off the Rails pretty much follows on directly from the tragic end to On the Loose. The PCU have one week to find the elusive killer, Mr Fox, a chameleon who is drawn to King's Cross Station. If they don't solve the case then they'll be shut down.

A second case is presented to them when a young woman is pushed down a flight of stairs in King's Cross Station and a sticker is left on her back. This sticker leads the team to the Karma bar and on to a house in Bloomsbury full of students. When one of the students impossibly disappears off a late-night underground train then pressure is increased on the remaining students as Arthur becomes convinced one of them is behind the disappearance.

The fascinating history of the London Underground is imparted to the listener via Mr Bryant and the security team at King's Cross. All sorts of legends and rumours as well as hard facts are presented and of course there's a field trip down there by Bryant and May. After much surveilling of suspects and attempts at magic tricks by Arthur, all routes finally lead to King's Cross in a dramatic ending where murder is thwarted by a most unlikely source.

This is another good entry in this innovative and informative series which mixes history with laughs. There is a late scene with "Acting Temporary Head of the PCU" Raymond Land which made me snort loudly on the train, delivered in such a dead-pan way by the always excellent Tim Goodman. Land also makes some attempt to clear up how old the two senior detectives are as he reckons that Arthur has moved the first case, Full Dark House, back by 15 years. Arthur disputes this so we are none the wiser.

Christopher Fowler is possibly the UK's answer to Fred Vargas, both take events which appear to be supernatural and provide rational explanations and both Bryant and Vargas's Adamsberg have very unorthodox ways of getting to the truth.

Read another Euro Crime review of Bryant & May Off the Rails.

More reviews of Christopher Fowler's books can be found on the Euro Crime website.

OT: Tattoo's what?

Spotted this on the same road but about 2 miles away as these beauties:
Also note cover up's but not body piercing's 

Publishing Deal - Andrea Gillies

I'm very pleased to read in today's Publishers Lunch Weekly that a US deal has been made for Andrea Gillies' The White Lie, which I reviewed recently. It's rather a long wait though! The UK (mass) market paperback is out on 5 July.

Andrea Gillies's THE WHITE LIE, in which a man haunts the woods near his family's crumbling estate in the Scottish highlands and unwinds the complicated, contradictory tale of the secrets they have kept and lies they have told to protect their legacy, to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for publication in Spring 2014.

New Titles from Pan MacMillan

Browsing through the new Pan Macmillan catalogue for July-December 2012, these are the titles of euro crime/translated interest:

August

Robin Blake - Dark Waters (#2 Titus Cragg, Coroner & Luke Fidelis, Doctor, 1740 Lancashire)

A M Dean - The Lost Library

Lucretia Grindle - The Lost Daughter (#2 Alessandro Pallioti, Florence) (paperback)

Jessie Keane - Nameless

L C Tyler - Herring on the Nile (#4 Ethelred Tressider, author & Elsie Thirkettle, agent) (paperback)

September

Ann Cleeves - The Glass Room (paperback)

Peter James - Not Dead Yet (#8 Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, Brighton) (paperback)

November

Mari Hannah - Settled Blood (#2 Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels)

Brian McGilloway - The Nameless Dead (#5 Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin) (paperback)

December

Jens Lapidus - Easy Money (paperback)

January 2013

Ann Cleeves - Dead Water (#5 Detective Jimmy Perez, Shetlands)

and from their Mantle imprint:

July

Simon Lelic - the Child Who (paperback)

August

Benjamin Black - Vengeance (#5 Quirke, pathologist, 1950s Dublin)

October

M J McGrath - The Boy in the Snow (#2 Edie Kiglatuk, Arctic)

C J Sansom - Dominion

November

Andrea Camilleri - The Age of Doubt (#15 Inspector Montalbano, Sicily)

New Reviews: Blake, Booth, Granger, Hayder, Indridason, Miller, Peterson, Robertson, Zeh

I'm back after a few days in the Lake District. It was very wet!

Here is a new set of 9 reviews:

(NB. Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.)

Several of Nicholas Blake's Nigel Strangeways titles have just been reissued by Vintage and we'll be reviewing them, starting with The Beast Must Die reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

Susan White reviews Stephen Booth's twelfth Cooper & Fry novel, Dead and Buried set in Derbyshire;

Rich Westwood reviews the fourth in Ann Granger's Victorian series: A Particular Eye for Villainy;

Sarah Hilary reviews Mo Hayder's standalone Hanging Hill which is now out in paperback;

Maxine Clarke reviews Arnaldur Indridason's Black Skies, tr. Victoria Cribb in which Sigurdur Oli takes the lead role;

Terry Halligan reviews Danny Miller's follow-up to Kiss Me Quick, The Gilded Edge set in 1965 London;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Mark Peterson's debut Flesh and Blood set in Brighton and introducing DS Minter;

Please welcome Waterstones bookseller and reviewer JF to the Euro Crime review team. Here she reviews Craig Robertson's Cold Grave, the third in his Glasgow-set series

and Lynn Harvey reviews Juli Zeh's intriguing The Method, tr. Sally-Ann Spencer which is not a crime novel as such but "a "what-if" novel".

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.

Publishing deal - Michael Ridpath

Michael Ridpath's keeping busy. Not only is he writing the Iceland-set Fire & Ice series but he's also written a historical thriller to be published next year. From Booktrade:

Set in 1938 Berlin, CONSPIRACY  is a fast paced thriller charting the fortunes of Conrad de Lancey, an Anglo-German pacifist who inadvertently becomes involved in the first plot to kill Hitler as Europe stands on the brink of war.

A further novel has also been contracted. Head of Zeus will publish in hardback as a lead title in Spring 2013. Corvus will continue to publish Ridpath's Icelandic based Fire and Ice series.

Michael Ridpath's Euro Crime bibliographical entry with reviews is here.

New Titles from Headline

Browsing through the new Headline catalogue for July-December 2012, these are the titles of "euro crime"  interest:

July

G J Moffat - Protection (#4 Logan Finch, Lawyer & DC Rebecca Irvine, Glasgow) 

Barbara Nadel - Dead of Night (#14 Ikmen) (paperback)

Christopher Radmann - Held Up (debut)

Simon Scarrow - Praetorian  (#11 Macro and Cato, Roman soldiers) (paperback)

August

Julia Crouch - Every Vow You Break (paperback)

James Forrester - The Final Sacrament (#3Clarenceux)

Quintin Jardine - As Easy as Murder (#3 Primavera Blackstone) (paperback)

Andy McDermott - Temple of the Gods (#8 Archaeologist Nina Wilde & ex-SAS bodyguard Eddie Chase) (paperback) 

Claire McGowan - The Fall (debut) (paperback)

Anne Perry - A Sunless Sea (#18 Inspector Monk) (paperback)

September

Martina Cole - "Untitled" 

James Dean - The Wrong Man (#1 James Bishop) (debut) (paperback)

October

Emily Barr - Stranded (paperback)

(Colin) Bateman - The Prisoner of Brenda (#4 Mystery Man)

Tanya Byrne - Heart-shaped Bruise (paperback)

Morgan McCarthy - The Other Half of Me (paperback)

November

Imogen Robertson - Circle of Shadows (#4 Harriet Westerman) (paperback)

Anne Perry - A Christmas Homecoming (paperback)

December

Ann Granger - A Particular Eye for Villainy (#4 Lizzie Martin) (paperback)

Free Ian Rankin Interview (pdf)

To promote Bloody Scotland, Blasted Heath are currently giving away an ebook containing a 13,000 word interview with Ian Rankin by Len Wanner.

It's free for the next 7 days only and you must enter the code stirling in the checkout.

"Buy" it here.

OT: Email Problems

I've been away for a few days and it seems the sheer volume of email traffic threw Thunderbird into a meltdown and it deleted my eurocrime email inbox (not my weatherwax one). If you've emailed and not heard then please resend your message and I will get back to you. A more robust system for my email is being implemented.

Summertime Death Poster

Spotted this advert for Mons Kallentoft's Summertime Death (translated by Neil Smith) in Marylebone tube station yesterday on my way to meet Ms Petrona for bookish chat:



It's in my tbr.

Euro Crime reviews of Midwinter Sacrifice: here and here.

New Reviews: Brookmyre, Drake, Kent, Kernick, Larsson, Rhodes, Siger, Webster, Wilson

There won't be any new reviews next weekend but here are 9 excellent new reviews...

(NB. Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.)

Rich Westwood reviews Chris Brookmyre's, Where the Bones are Buried, set in Glasgow and now available in paperback;

Amanda Gillies goes back to Ancient Egypt for Nick Drake's third Rahotep mystery, Egypt: The Book of Chaos;

Lynn Harvey travels to the Solomon Islands for G W Kent's One Blood the sequel to Devil-Devil;

Terry Halligan reviews Siege by the UK's equivalent to Harlan Coben: Simon Kernick;

Laura Root reviews the long-awaited UK release of Asa Larsson's The Black Path, tr. Marlaine Delargy (NB. This title precedes Until Thy Wrath Be Past);

Susan White reviews Kate Rhodes's debut Crossbones Yard the first in the Alice Quentin, psychologist series;

Terry also reviews Jeffrey Siger's Target: Tinos the fourth in his Greek series;

Geoff Jones reviews Jason Webster's A Death in Valencia, the sequel to his acclaimed Or the Bull Kills You

and Maxine Clarke reviews the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger 2012 shortlisted A Willing Victim the fourth in Laura Wilson's Ted Stratton series.

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.

New Titles from Quercus July-Dec 2012

Browsing through the new Quercus catalogue for July-December 2012, these are the titles of euro crime/translated interest:

Quercus

July

Max Kinnings - Baptism (#1 DCI Ed Mallory)

Barbara Nadel - A Private Business (#1 Hakim & Arnold)

August

Tom Grieves - Sleepwalkers

Martin Walker - The Devil's Cave (#5 Bruno Chief of Police)

September

Phil Campion - Desert Fire (debut)

[Tony Park - Dark Heart (Australian writer, writing about Africa)]

November

Alex Connor - Memory of Bones

Peter Mayle - The Marseille Caper (#2 Sam Levitt)

MacLehose

August

Marek Krajewski - The Minotaur's Head (#4 Inspector Eberhard Mock, Breslau)

September

Asa Larsson - The Black Path (paperback) (#3 Rebecka Martinsson)

New Titles from Constable & Robinson

Browsing through the new Constable & Robinson catalogue for July-December 2012, these are the titles of euro crime/translated interest:

July

Simon Brett - Blotto, Twinks and the Bootlegger's Moll

Alison Bruce - The Silence

Pat McIntosh - The Fourth Crow

Cath Staincliffe - Split Second (paperback)

August

James Craig - Buckingham Palace Blues

Fuminori Nakamura - The Thief

September

Hannah Dennison - Expose!

Hannah Dennison - Thieves!

T F (Frank) Muir - Tooth for a Tooth

Lynn Shepherd - Tom-All-Alone's (paperback)

October

M C Beaton - Agatha Raisin: Hiss and Hers

Alan Hunter - Gently with the Ladies; Gently North-West; Gently Continental

Blocky Titles - Cover Theme

Ian Rankin's books are being rejacketed by Orion to match the newest style as shown on The Impossible Dead. Fellow Scottish crime writer TF (Frank) Muir's third book Tooth for a Tooth will be out in September from Constable.

The Hanging Wood's out in paperback

Just a note to let you know that the latest in Martin Edwards's terrific Lake District series, The Hanging Wood, has just come out in paperback.

Martin's Bibliography with reviews on Euro Crime

and

Maxine's review for Euro Crime of The Hanging Wood.

Want More Sebastian Bergman?

The two-episode Sebastian Bergman has now finished on BBC4. (Next week see the repeat of Spiral series 2 in the now traditional "foreign crime" slot.)

However the first in the Sebastian Bergman series written by (duo) Hjorth Rosenfeldt, originally to be called Dark Secrets (the Swedish title is The Secret), and now retitled as Sebastian Bergman, is available to buy now on Kindle. The print version will be available on 5 July.

I haven't watched these episodes yet (surprise) but it seems that the first episode was based on this book and the second on the second book in the series, The Disciple (not yet available in English).

An electrifying Swedish international bestseller - the first in the Sebastian Bergman series. Now a hit BBC4 TV drama starring Rolf Lassgard, the original WALLANDER, as Bergman.

Sixteen-year-old Roger has vanished. Days pass and Västerås Police do nothing, blaming his disappearance on teenage antics. Then Roger's pale, mutilated body is found floating in a shallow pond, his heart missing, and the experts descend.

They need Sebastian Bergman. Top criminal profiler and angry, self-destructive mess, Bergman is no stranger to secrets. Desperate for access to police files, he plays along, until the brittle web of lies and deception seizes his full attention.

But Roger had his own secrets - dark secrets that are tearing apart the very fabric under which they all survive . . .

A page-turning, atmospheric thriller to rival the very best of Jo Nesbo, Henning Mankell and Stieg Larsson.

The electrifying thriller from the writers of BBC4 Swedish TV drama SEBASTIAN BERGMAN and the creator of the hugely successful series THE BRIDGE.

Website Updates - June 2012

Website Update

The Euro Crime website's state of play at 3.06.12:

The Author Websites page now lists 943 sites.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1793 authors (9143 titles with links to 2303 reviews).

I've added new bibliographies for: Elizabeth Bailey, Jefferson Bass,C C Benison, Conor Brady, Audrey Braun, Bernadette Calonego, Alexander Campion, Karen Charlton, Ed Chatterton, Alex Churton, Michael Clifford, A J Cross, Kate Darby, Anders de la Motte, A M Dean, Victor del Arbol, Luke Delaney, Elanor Dymott, Barry Fantoni, Jurgen Fauth, Carin Gerhardsen, Andrea Gillies, Thomas Glavinic, Helene Gremillon, Wolf Haas, Tessa Harris, Annie Hauxwell, Tony/Anthony Hays, Fabrice Humbert, David Jackson, Dan James, Hanna Jameson, Gerald Jay, Meurig Jones, Will Jordan, Pia Juul, Max Kinnings, Anya Lipska, Susan Elia MacNeal, Claire McGowan, Fergus McNeill, Louise Millar, Thomas Mogford, Mark Oldfield, Regina O'Melveny, Susanna Quinn, Felix Riley, James Runcie, Lloyd Shepherd, Sara Sheridan, John Gordon Sinclair, Joanna Campbell Slan, Eva Maria Staal, Will Thomas, Morley Torgov, Simon Urban, Louise Voss & Mark Edwards, Evonne Wareham and Carlos Zanon.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Jane Adams, Colin Bateman, M C Beaton, David Belbin, Tony Black, Rhys Bowen, Simon Brett, Frances Brody, Christopher Brookmyre, Kevin Brooks, Alison Bruce, Fiona Buckley, Aifric Campbell, Rebecca Cantrell, Donato Carrisi, Tania Carver, Joyce Cato, Kimberley Chambers, Lee Child, Sam Christer, Alys Clare, John Connolly, Lesley Cookman, N J Cooper, Arne Dahl, Elizabeth Darrell, Jason Dean, Anna Dean, P C/Paul Doherty, David Downing, Elizabeth J Duncan, Carola Dunn, Matthew Dunn, Sam Eastland, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Kate Ellis, Thomas Enger, Jasper Fforde, Charles Finch, Sebastian Fitzek, Dick Francis, Friis & Kaaberbol, Frances Fyfield, Gillian Galbraith, Anton Gill, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Eliza Graham, Susanna Gregory, J M Gregson, Penny Grubb, Penny Hancock, Cora Harrison, Veronica Heley, Casey Hill, Susan Hill, Anne Holt, Hazel Holt, Ewart Hutton, Diane Janes, Juris Jurjevics, Lars Kepler, Ali Knight, Alanna Knight, Janet Laurence, Stephen Leather, Donna Leon, Howard Linskey, M L Longworth, Adrian Magson, G M Malliet, Michael Marshall, Edward/A E Marston, Priscilla Masters, Peter May, Margaret Mayhew, Keith McCarthy, Carol McCleary, Val McDermid, Brian McGilloway, Pat McIntosh, Shirley McKay, Russel D McLean, Andy McNab, Catriona McPherson, Pascal Mercier, Denise Mina, Steve Mosby, Theresa Murphy, Barbara Nadel, Stuart Neville, John Niven, J A O'Brien, Niamh O'Connor, Jean-Francois Parot, Andrea Penrose, Anne Perry, Ann Purser, Caro Ramsay, Danielle Ramsay, Emlyn Rees, Stella Rimington, Peter Robinson, Jean Rowden, Pauline Rowson, Rob/Robert Ryan, Gerald Seymour, EV Seymour, A K Shevchenko, Jeffrey Siger, Philip Sington, Sally Spencer, Nick Stone, Linda Stratmann, Stefan Tegenfalk, Johan Theorin, June Thomson, Peter Tickler, Simon Tolkien, Kerry Tombs, Simon Toyne, Peter Tremayne, M J Trow, Helene Tursten, Marco Vichi, Barbara Vine, Martin Walker, Tim Weaver, Lee Weeks, Jeri Westerson, Neil White, Timothy Williams, Edward Wilson, Robert Wilson, Tom Winship, Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Anne Zouroudi

If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.

New Reviews: Bass, Bates, Casey, Dean, Gillies, Hauxwell, Henry, Orford, Staincliffe

There were no reviews last weekend as I was away at CrimeFest and I've written up a few of the panels here.

Don't forget to vote in the International Dagger Polls.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Jefferson Bass's, The Bones of Avignon, published in the US as The Inquisitor's Key;

Maxine Clarke reviews Quentin Bates's Cold Comfort the second in his Icelandic series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Jane Casey's The Last Girl the third in the DC Maeve Kerrigan series;

Terry Halligan is very impressed with Jason Dean's debut The Wrong Man set in the US;

I recently reviewed, on the blog, Andrea Gillies's, The White Lie a tale of family secrets, set in Scotland;

Susan Hilary reviews Annie Hauxwell's debut In Her Blood;

Susan White reviews James Henry's Fatal Frost the second prequel to R D Wingfield's beloved series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Margie Orford's, Daddy's Girl, the third in her Cape Town series which has just been released in paperback

and Rich Westwood reviews Cath Staincliffe's prequel to the Scott & Bailey tv series, Dead to Me and he hopes there will be more.

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.

CrimeFest - Death in a Cold Climate

Barry Forshaw chairs the Death in a Cold Climate - Scandinavians panel at Crimefest 2012.
Guests: Asa Larsson (Swe), Thomas Enger (Nor), Ragnar Jonasson (Ice) and Gunnar Staalesen (Nor)

Here are my notes:

Stieg Larsson has opened the doors for other Scandinavian authors - light a candle for him - but he is from the north though he writes about Stockholm.

AL is often asked how can such a short person write such horrible things? She kills dogs and priest in her books but only gets letters about the dogs. (NB. No dogs (or priests) are harmed in Until Thy Wrath Be Past). Enjoyed writing her first book the most. Says to know an author, read their first book.

TE: Burned is the first of six books (originally was looking at eight or even twelve) about Henning Juul (sounds like yule), Pierced is out shortly in UK and he is working on Scarred. All six books about Juul finding out why his son died. HJ has "really pissed someone off". There is more information about the fire in Pierced and there is a teaser at the end, as there was at the end of Burned.

GS adapted one of books for theatre so the statue (of Varg Veum in Bergen) is a mixture of that actor and tv actor (though the tv actor is from East Norway and has the wrong accent)

RJ: Crime fiction in Iceland - until Arnaldur Indridason (1997) - was looked down on. There are two murders or less a year in Iceland.

AL comes from town 200km north of polar circle, 100 years old. Asked - why so much mutilations - is it typical for women?

Sjowall and Wahloo are the King and Queen, Henning Mankell is the crown prince, writing in same style.

GS showed Prince Charles and Camilla around Bergen for 27 minutes.

RJ: The plot and setting is the reason for popularity not the social issues, and strong chars (adds AL), especially in a series. And nature (GS) (ie open space, wildlife). If not having to speak in English the four authors could converse in slowly spoken Norwegian.

TE: [Translator] Charlotte Barslund nailed Henning Juul character and GS praising Don Bartlett's translations.

RJ: Started reading Agatha Christie when 12/13 and four years later approached the publisher about translating them.

GS: Writes 5 days a week, loves his job.

AL wrote 'Wrath' between 4-7am, goes to bed early and this is the quiet time when there are no demands from family or telephone. AL was a tax lawyer.

TE: Henning Juul is a real character, these online journalist do exist.

GS: Ambassador for the dark side of Bergen.

AL: No taboos on what to write. TE wouldn't write about paedophilia. RJ: As you write more your boundaries move. GS: not extreme violence, more about psychology.

TE: First draft of Burned was much more humorous but editors stick to conventions and took it out. TE wanted to give H Juul a weapon to deal with his situation.

GS borrows from Raymond Chandler.

Check out the bibliographies and reviews at the Euro Crime website:

Death in a Cold Climate by Barry Forshaw
Asa Larsson
Thomas Enger
Ragnar Jonasson - not yet translated into English
Gunnar Staalesen

International Dagger 2012 - Polls

As has become traditional, I have now set up two polls relating to the International Dagger. They will close on 4 July. The announcement of the winner of the International Dagger 2012 will be made on 5 July at the CWA's Award Ceremony.

The first poll is for:

Which book do you want to win.

The second poll is for:

Which book do you think will win.

The polls can be found on the RHS of the blog. We'll see how much correlation there is between the two polls - and you can see the results of last year's polls here.