TV News: Dark Heart on ITV

Dark Heart begins on ITV on Wednesday 31 October at 9pm, with the second part of the six-part series showing the following day. These first two episodes were orginally broadcast as a film, in 2016, on ITV Encore.

The series is based on/inspired by the books by Adam Creed.

Series overview from ITV's website:

Tom Riley stars as DI Will Wagstaffe, a man haunted by the murder of his parents when he was 16 years old.

Set in London and produced by Silverprint Pictures, the series is written for ITV by acclaimed screenwriter Chris Lang whose work includes award-winning drama Unforgotten, Torn, Undeniable and A Mother’s Son. Dark Heart is inspired by characters created by novelist Adam Creed, who has written a series of books featuring Will Wagstaffe.

Whilst devoting his life to his work, DI Will Wagstaffe, also known as Staffe to his colleagues, battles personal demons. He’s haunted by the unresolved murder of his parents, which affects both his private and professional life including his on-off romance with sometimes girlfriend, Sylvie (Miranda Raison). His closest relationship is with his sister Juliette, (Charlotte Riley) and young nephew Harry, who stays with him when Juliette has troubles with her boyfriend.

With no parents and no significant partner of his own, Juliette and Harry mean everything to Staffe. Determined and tenacious, Wagstaffe is an exceptionally good police officer, in spite of the fact he’s been known for pushing the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable policing.

New Reviews: Blake, Creed, Garnier, McNeill, O'Connor, Rowson, Russell, Shepherd, Varenne

Here are 9 new reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today:

Rich Westwood reviews Nicholas Blake's third Nigel Strangeways mystery There's Trouble Brewing which was reissued earlier this year with three other titles;

Geoff Jones reviews Adam Creed's fourth DI Wagstaffe book Death in the Sun set in Spain;

Earlier this week I reviewed Pascal Garnier's How's the Pain? tr. Emily Boyce a most unusual short crime story;

Susan White reviews the debut from Fergus McNeill, Eye Contact set in Severn Beach;

Maxine Clarke reviews Niamh O'Connor's Too Close for Comfort, the third in her DI Jo Birmingham series set in Dublin;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Pauline Rowson's Death Lies Beneath the eight in her Portsmouth based series featuring DI Andy Horton;

Amanda Gillies reviews Leigh Russell's fourth DI Geraldine Steele outing Death Bed set in London;

Terry Halligan reviews Lynn Shepherd's Tom-All-Alone's (apa The Solitary House), set in the milieu of Bleak House

and Lynn Harvey reviews Antonin Varenne's Bed of Nails tr. Sian Reynolds set in Paris and Lynn writes that it is "a powerful and original debut crime story, definitely one for Vargas fans".

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 Reviews: Black, Creed, Gazan, Knight, Russell, Templeton & New Competition

New Competition for June:
Win four books by S J Bolton (UK & Ireland)

Do please vote in the International Dagger polls (top right of blog).

Here are this week's reviews:

Michelle Peckham reviews Dishonour by Helen Black, the third in the Lilly Valentine series;

Terry Halligan reviews the third in the DI Staffe series from Adam Creed: Pain of Death;

Maxine Clarke reviews (nothing like The Killing) The Dinosaur Feather by Sissel-Jo Gazan, tr. Charlotte Barslund;

Susan White reviews Ali Knight's debut, Wink Murder;

Amanda Gillies reviews the third book in the series by Leigh Russell, Dead End featuring DI Geraldine Steel

and Lizzie Hayes reviews the latest case for Galloway DI Marjorie Fleming in Aline Templeton's Cradle to Grave now out in paperback.

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

New Reviews: Creed, Forrester, Franklin, Neville, Nickson, Sjowall & Wahloo

Two competitions for August and one is open internationally:
Win one of three sets of Lockdown and Deadlock by Sean Black (Worldwide)
Win one of five copies of Inspector Cataldo's Criminal Summer by Luigi Guicciardi, tr Iain Halliday (UK & Europe)

Here are this week's reviews, which this week include several historical novels:

I review Adam Creed's second outing for DI Staffe, Willing Flesh set in a seedy, modern-day London;

Terry Halligan goes back to the Elizabethan era for James Forrester's debut novel Sacred Treason;

Norman Price travels back to Henry II's time when he reviews Ariana Franklin's, fourth Adelia Aguilar outing, The Assassin's Prayer in which the leads traipse off to Sicily;

Back in modern-day, Laura Root reviews Collusion, Stuart Neville's follow-up to the very well-received The Twelve (apa The Ghosts of Belfast);

Michelle Peckham travels back to eighteenth century Leeds in The Broken Token by Chris Nickson

and Maxine Clarke reviews the penultimate title in the classic Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo, Cop Killer, tr. Thomas Teal.

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

New Reviews: Burke, Cleeves, Creed, Harper, Monaldi & Sorti, Sington

There are three competitions running this month; the prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

I review one of this month's competition prizes, The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke;

Pat Austin reviews the paperback edition of White Nights by Ann Cleeves the second in the excellent Shetland Quartet;

Maxine Clarke reviews Suffer the Children by Adam Creed the first in a London based police procedural series;

Michelle Peckham reviews the globe-trotting thriller, The Book of Secrets by Tom Harper;

Laura Root reviews the controversial Imprimatur by Monaldi and Sorti

and Norman Price writes very favourably of The Einstein Girl by Philip Sington.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.

Win: Suffer the Children by Adam Creed

There are no geographical restrictions on entrants to this month's competition, in which you can win a copy of Suffer the Children by Adam Creed which is published on 7 May in hardback. Suffer the Children introduces London cop, DI Will Wagstaffe aka Staffe.

The details on how to win a copy can be found on the Euro Crime website.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Monday Afternoon

Staffe raises his head as high as he can, sucks in the Underground air. He is pushed from behind and his chest rubs up against the head of a raven-haired woman as they shuffle towards the escalator. She curses in an eastern tongue and he wants to apologise, but knows it isn't warranted, nor will it accomplish anything.

Judgement is scheduled for 14.00. He tries to push into the left-hand line but there is no gap. A group of teenage malevolents jostles through against the flow, leaving a sweet pall of solvents. He holds his breath as he takes a half step on to the moving escalator, waits, then breathes deep, and pictures Judge Burns; the events of the past two days in court. His nerves tighten and Staffe tries to calm his rushing blood. He makes sure the case papers are wedged tight into the pit of his arm and doe sup the collar of his shirt. The top button presses against his Adam's apple as he swallows. He tightens his tie right up.

Publishing Deal - Adam Creed

From the Bookseller:

Faber has acquired a début crime series by Adam Creed, who runs prison project Free to Write. The three-book deal was struck with Patrick Walsh at Conville and Walsh, with foreign rights also sold to Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. The books will all feature London policeman Detective Inspector Wagstaffe. The series kicks off with Suffer the Children, in which it appears that child abuse victims are enacting their own retribution and murdering known paedophiles.

As Wagstaffe investigates the case, figures from his own past start emerging.