TV News: The Sinner

The Sinner starts on Netflix on Tuesday. Based on German author Petra Hammesfahr's novel, is stars Jessica Biel and Bill Pullman.

"When a young mother inexplicably stabs a stranger to death, a sympathetic detective struggles to unlock the mystery buried in her missing memories."

Fiona Walker reviewed THE SINNER, translated into English by John Brownjohn, for Euro Crime back in 2008:

Petra Hammesfahr's THE SINNER is a brilliant book, an absolutely masterly piece of crime fiction. Once again I find myself endlessly grateful for the continuing zeitgeist of translated crime, which means that we English readers get the treat of reading this exemplary psychological thriller, a haunting descent into the torments of one woman's youthful years.

...there's been a lot of buzz about Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and deservedly so, but this first translation from Hammesfahr is without doubt of equal quality, and deserves just as much praise.

New Reviews: Becker, Hammesfahr, Jones & Allison, Sampson, Saylor, Wilson

The settings for this week's books include the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, Israel and China:

Amanda Gillies reviews The Moses Stone by James Becker, an excellent follow-up to The First Apostle;

Maxine Clarke reviews Petra Hammesfahr's The Lie which she found didn't live up to the promise of The Sinner;

Terry Halligan reviews Fat Blackmail by Bruce Kennedy Jones and Eric Allison the sequel to The Last Straight Face;

Michelle Peckham reviews the recent paperback release of The Slaughter Pavilion by Catherine Sampson, set in China;

Amanda Brown reviews the paperback edition of Steven Saylor's The Triumph of Caesar, the latest in his Gordianus the Finder series

and Norman Price reviews The Ignorance of Blood by Robert Wilson the final book in the Javier Falcon quartet.

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

Forthcoming titles from Bitter Lemon Press

Here are a couple of titles recently added to the Bitter Lemon website:

THURSDAY NIGHT WIDOWS • Claudia Piñeiro
Three bodies lie at the bottom of a swimming pool in a gated country estate in the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It’s a Thursday night at the magnificent Scaglia house.
A post 9/11 novel about financial and moral decay. ‘An agile novel and a ruthless dissection of a fast decaying society.’ José Saramago
UK July 09 / US January 10
£7.99 • $14.95 • PB • 978-1904738-411

THE LIE • Petra Hammesfahr
Nadia and Susanne are doppelgangers: one is filthy rich and the other dirt poor. When Susanne is asked to spend the weekend with Nadia’s estranged husband how can she refuse the outrageous fee on offer? ‘Hammesfahr is gripping, full of psychological insight, and one of Germany’s most successful writers.’ Literary Review
UK October 09 / US March 10
£7.99 • $14.95 • PB • 978-1904738-428

New Reviews

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

Latest Reviews:

Declan Burke reviews Saturday's Child by Ray Banks writing "Ray Banks offers us a glimpse of what Samuel Beckett might have read like had he turned his hand to crime fiction";

Fiona Walker reckons The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr is every bit as good as Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (so look out for that one on the International Dagger shortlist);

Maxine Clarke adds another Swedish author to her list of favourite writers after reading Unseen by Mari Jungstedt;

and she also enjoyed The Simian Curve by Mark Lalbeharry - a London based police procedural with a science angle

and Pat Austin gets the read she's long been waiting for with Manda Scott's The Crystal Skull which could be her 'read of the year'.


Current Competition (closing date 31 January):

Win a copy of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)