New Reviews: Dobbs, Goddard, Johnston, Keenan, Monroe, Penney

Here are this week's new reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews Michael Dobbs' Old Enemies, the fourth in the Harry Jones series, and which is now out in paperback;

Laura Root reviews Robert Goddard's twenty-second book, Blood Count which is also now now out in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews Paul Johnston's Maps of Hell which is the third in his Matt Wells series;

Susan White reviews Shy Keenan's debut fiction novel, The Stolen Ones which made for uncomfortable reading;

Terry Halligan reviews Aly Monroe's third Peter Cotton novel, Icelight which has just been listed in the Daily Telegraph's "Top 5 thrillers of 2011"

and Maxine Clarke reviews The Invisible Ones, the long awaited second book from Stef Penney and which Maxine thinks may even be better than the massively successful The Tenderness of Wolves.

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 Michael Dobbs, Zoran Drvenkar, Robert Goddard, Penny Hancock, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Veronica Stallwood and Elizabeth Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year - Winner

As anyone who's interested probably knows by now, Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves won the Theakston's prize - £3000 and a miniature beer casket - last Thursday. Maxine (Petrona) and I were there, and were very pleased to see the sole female representative win. For a more objective reason as to why she's a worthy winner, read Maxine's review of The Tenderness of Wolves.

Also, from the Guardian:

Speaking to the Guardian earlier today, the chairman of the judges, Val McDermid, was keen to claim Penny's novel for the crime fiction genre. "This is a book about a murder and its consequences," she said, "and that's a crime novel almost by definition."

According to McDermid, the distinction between crime and literary fiction is becoming increasingly blurred and irrelevant. She described the decision as a straightforward judgment on the quality of the books in front of the panel: "The consensus was that this was the outstanding book."

The judges had no intention to shift the public's perception of crime fiction, she said, adding that crime writers have been writing quality fiction for years. "If it changes people's attitude to crime fiction that's a bonus," she continued, "but it wasn't the judges' motivation."

The Tenderness of Wolves on Radio 4

Stef Penney's 'The Tenderness of Wolves' is being dramatised on Radio 4, starting today and finishing on the 26th.

Broadcast times are - 10.45-11.00am, repeated 7.45-8.00pm - and you can listen again for seven days after broadcast. More details on the Radio 4 Woman's Hour page.

Read the Euro Crime review of 'The Tenderness of Wolves', here.