New Soho Imprint

Good news for American fans of British crime fiction as Soho Press are to publish some Constable and Robinson titles under their own imprint Soho Constable. From Publisher's Weekly:

Soho Press is launching a new mystery imprint this spring called Soho Constable. Set to start publishing in April, the imprint will be releasing mysteries just published across the pond by British house Constable & Robinson. The books, both historical and modern-day mysteries set predominantly in England and Scotland, are by such authors as Barbara Cleverly, R.T. Raichev and Roberta Kray.

While some of the imprint's authors were previously published in the U.S. by Carroll & Graf, Soho Constable will be releasing new titles by the writers, explained Soho Press publisher and editor-in-chief Laura Hruska. Hruska added that the print runs for the books will vary, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 depending on the popularity of the writer. With plans to do what Hurska dubbed a "substantial list" each season--the second list will include nine titles--Hruska noted that the imprint will also, in the future, release some classic mysteries; the second list, for example, will include Peter Lovesey’s Sergeant Cribb series. Among the titles on the first list are Reconstruction by Mick Herron and The Rough Collier by Pat McIntosh.

Maybe they'll also print A Darker Side (out in May) - the book following my current read from Constable and Robinson, Into the Shadows, by Shirley Wells, set in the Lancashire Pennines. (I had to abandon The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz after 50 pages as it wasn't working for me! Great UK cover though.)

The Collaborator of Bethlehem - Matt Beynon Rees

Here's another tastefully covered offering from Soho Press and thus another book is added to the wishlist. 'The Collaborator of Bethlehem' by British author, Matt Beynon Rees, is billed as the first in a series of Palestine mysteries and the main character is history teacher, Omar Yussef.

Synopsis:
"For decades, Omar Yussef has been a teacher of history to the children of Bethlehem. When a favorite former pupil, George Saba, a member of the Palestinian Christian minority, is arrested for collaborating with the Israelis in the killing of a Palestinian guerrilla, Omar is sure he has been framed. If George is not cleared, he faces imminent execution.Then the wife of the dead man, also one of Omar Yussef’s former pupils, is murdered, possibly raped. When he begins to suspect the head of the Bethlehem al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is the true collaborator, Omar and his family are threatened. But as no one else is willing to stand up to the violent Martyrs Brigades men, who hold the real power in the town, it is up to him to investigate."

About the author:
From his website: "Matt Beynon Rees is a mystery novelist and journalist. As a reporter, he has covered the Middle East for over a decade, with the vast majority of that time spent amongst Palestinians and Israelis. He’s a Contributor for Time based in Jerusalem, where he was the magazine’s bureau chief from June 2000 until January 2006. He was born in Wales in 1967 and studied at Oxford University and the University of Maryland. Beynon Rees wrote award-winning stories about the violence of the Aqsa intifada for Time."

The US edition will be out in February 2007 and according to his blog, the UK version, retitled 'The Bethlehem Murders', will be out in June 2007.