New Reviews: Bates, Beaton, Bolton, Harvey, Meredith, Mogford, Morris, Roslund & Hellstrom, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, one has appeared on the blog over the last couple of weeks and eight are completely new.

Since the last set of reviews, we've announced the winner of the Petrona Award 2014; I've been at CrimeFest and you can see my notes on twitter @eurocrime or on #crimefest14, and there's been lots of tv news.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Geoff Jones reviews the latest in Quentin Bates's Icelandic series, Cold Steal which has just been released as an ebook;

I muse on the latest books in M C Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series including Death of a Policeman;

Michelle Peckham reviews the fourth in the Lacey Flint series by Sharon Bolton: A Dark and Twisted Tide;

Mark Bailey reviews John Harvey's Darkness, Darkness which is the last in the Resnick series and, I understand, his final crime novel;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Devil's Ribbon by D E Meredith, which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Thomas Mogford's Sign of the Cross which is set in Malta;

Terry Halligan reviews R N Morris's The Dark Palace, the third in the Silas Quinn series, set in 1914;

Lynn Harvey reviews Two Soldiers by Roslund & Hellstrom tr. Kari Dickson, which is now out in paperback

and Terry also reviews Capital Punishment by Robert Wilson, which is the first in the Charlie Boxer series and is also now out in paperback.

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.

John Harvey - Resnick news

It seems a number of series are finishing up at the moment, including John Harvey's Charlie Resnick series (though Cold in Hand broke my heart). From The Bookseller:

William Heinemann has signed a final book featuring Charlie Resnick from crime writer John Harvey. Cornerstone m.d. Susan Sandon aquired UK and Commonwealth rights.

The novel, Darkness, Darkness, is set in Nottingham, and sees Resnick revisiting a cold case focused around the 1984 miner's strike.

Sandon said: "John lived and worked in Nottingham during the strike and witnessed the strife first hand.  His depiction of the violence and anger which not only divided a community but set brothers, husbands , wives and entire families against one another is both wholly authentic and riveting. I’m extremely sad to know that this is Resnick’s last appearance."

Darkness, Darkness will be published in hardback in May 2014 to coincide with the 30th anniversary of  the strike. It will be published as a paperback in autumn 2014 by Arrow.

New Reviews: Bauer, Conrad, Cookman, Harvey, Kelly, Leonard, Littell, Tope, Walker

Here are nine new reviews and a reminder of the competition:
Win the 'Nikki Heat' novels by Richard Castle (UK only) - closes 31 January 2013.

I have been posting the reviewers' favourite reads of 2012 over the last couple of weeks (one more still to go) and then I'll be counting up the votes and announcing the winner(s).

This week's new reviews:

Michelle Peckham calls Belinda Bauer's Rubbernecker "a great book";

Last week I reviewed on the blog, Patrick Conrad's No Sale tr. Jonathan Lynn, an unusual book which film buffs should particularly enjoy;

Geoff Jones reviews the latest in Lesley Cookman's Libby Sarjeant series, Murder in the Monastery set in Kent;

Terry Halligan reviews John Harvey's Good Bait newly released in paperback;

Susan White reviews Erin Kelly's The Burning Air calling it "a compelling read";

Peter Leonard's Back from the Dead is released this month and Lynn Harvey catches up with the first part of Harry Levin's story in the paperback edition of Voices of the Dead;

Laura Root reviews Robert Littell's who "injects fresh life into an oft told tale" in the Young Philby;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Rebecca Tope's The Windermere Witness the first in a new series set in the Lake District and featuring florist Simmy Brown

and Amanda Gillies reviews Martin Walker's The Devil's Cave, the fifth in the Bruno, Chief of Police series set in France.

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: Goodwin, Harvey, James, Johnston, Kitson, Koppel, Marklund, Pastor, Price

As well as the 9 new reviews, don't forget to see which title, author and translator made the top spot for the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite book of 2011.

The competition's still open: win Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (no geographical restrictions).

Here are this week's reviews:

Susan White reviews the latest in the Yashim the Eunuch series by Jason Goodwin, An Evil Eye (and Susan has even tried some of the recipes featured in this series);

John Harvey's Good Bait features a new protagonist plus a couple of characters from earlier books including DCI Karen Shields from the heart-breaking Cold in Hand and is reviewed here by Maxine Clarke;

Michelle Peckham thinks Peter James's Dead Man's Grip signals that the series could be running out of steam;

The Silver Stain is a belated but welcome return for Paul Johnston's PI Alex Mavros, set in Greece, reviewed here by Geoff Jones;

Terry Halligan found Bill Kitson's latest DI Mike Nash, Back-Slash hard to put down;

I review Hans Koppel's She's Never Coming Back tr. Kari Dickson which I didn't enjoy very much;

Fortunately Lynn Harvey had a better experience with Liza Marklund's The Bomber which has been retranslated by Neil Smith;

Norman calls Ben Pastor's Liar Moon "grown-up crime fiction"

and Lizzie Hayes reviews Joanna Price's debut A Means of Escape set in the Glastonbury area (and incidentally is very cheap on Kindle at the moment).

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 Mark Billingham, Kevin Brophy and Hakan Ostlundh have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder of March's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews John Harvey's return to his Resnick character, in Cold in Hand, writing, "this is going to be one of the very best novels I read this year";

I review Death in Breslau by Marek Krajewski which introduces Criminal Inspector Eberhard Mock, a most unusual policeman;

Declan Burke reviews Sean Moncrieff's The History of Things calling it "a fascinating tale rooted in criminality";

Terry Halligan heaps praise on Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave, the first in a Victorian series starring Lady Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane

and Maxine reviews a fictionalised Josephine Tey's first foray into detection in Nicola Upson's An Expert in Murder.

Current Competition (closing date 31 March):

Win a copy of A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

Charlie Resnick update

An earlier blog post referred to the upcoming return of Resnick, and now amazon.co.uk are listing publication dates.

Firstly, TROUBLE IN MIND, of which John Harvey said in his last newsletter...

...the Nottingham-based Five Leaves Press have commissioned a new story from me for their new Crime Express series of single, longish stories which will be issued in editions of around 1,000 copies. Some of you out there will be pleased to know that this features none other than Charlie Resnick, still labouring on within Notts CID and living, happily enough, with his former sergeant Lynn Kellogg, now an inspector in the Force Crime Directorate [and making a brief appearance as such in the aforementioned Gone to Ground]. My plan is for Charlie to meet up with another of my fictional characters, former police officer and professional soccer player and currently private eye, Jack Kiley...

...will be available on 1st October.

He further wrote...

if all goes well, and the partnership feels right, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that they might both feature in the next-to-be-written novel. Not a full-scale Resnick novel as such, perhaps, but one in which he has far more than the walk-on role the Elder books allowed.

...well it must have gone well as amazon are listing, COLD IN HAND, published on 31 January 2008.

Synopsis:

On Valentine's Day, Lynn Kellogg was shot and survived; the teenage girl standing next to her was less fortunate. Recently promoted to Detective Inspector in the city's Major Crime Unit, Lynn's rescue of a badly-beaten fifteen-year old from Eastern Europe links her to an international investigation into people trafficking and gun smuggling, and teams her up with SOCA - the Serious and Organised Crime Agency - for the first time. Just when everything seems to be progressing smoothly, things begin to go awry, leaving Lynn with serious doubts about the probity of the SOCA officers in charge. And when DI Charlie Resnick rouses himself from near-retirement to lend a hand, he finds himself blocked at every turn. Finally, it needs the intervention of Jack Kiley, former cop and soccer player turned private eye, before a way can be found through a miasma of murder and betrayal with mortal danger at each and every turn.

John Harvey gets his Dagger

Yesterday I received the following press release:

JOHN HARVEY AWARDED 2007 CWA CARTIER DIAMOND DAGGER

Veteran British crime writer John Harvey has been awarded the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. The award was presented by M. Arnaud Bamberger, Managing Director of Cartier UK, at a ceremony which took place at the Savoy Hotel on May 9th.

The CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger is awarded for sustained excellence in the genre of crime writing, with the recipient being selected by crime writers on the CWA Committee. John joins an illustrious list of previous winners, including PD James, Ruth Rendell, John Le Carré, Ed McBain, Elmore Leonard, Dick Francis, Colin Dexter and Ian Rankin.

Robert Richardson, former Chair of the CWA, said ‘John Harvey continues a line that began in 1985 with the great Eric Ambler, and is another glittering name among winners of the Cartier Diamond Dagger, representing the very best of crime writing both in Britain and America. The Crime Writers’ Association, in whose gift the Dagger is, has again recognised an outstanding talent.’

John Harvey said ‘It is obviously a great honour to accept this award, particularly as it comes from my fellow writers. I had been dreaming of retirement, and a small holding in Cornwall, but I fear this award might serve to delay that move for that much longer.’

JOHN HARVEY has been described as ‘one of the masters of British crime fiction’ by the Sunday Telegraph, and ‘one of the leading writers of crime fiction alive today’ by Le Monde. He was born in 1938 in north London, where, after several lengthy sojourns in Nottingham, he continues to live. Like many successful writers, he learned his trade writing pulp fiction – including many westerns. He has close to one hundred published titles to his credit and his latest, Gone to Ground was published by William Heinemann in February 2007.

Ash and Bone by John Harvey has been long-listed for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel Of The Year 2007. Short-listed titles will be decided by a public vote, via voting forms available in stores and online at www.waterstones.com

The last paragraph is of particular interest as I haven't seen any mention before to this year's Crime Novel of the Year and wasn't sure it was actually going ahead given it was driven by Ottakars. Looks like it is though.