The Crime Writer at the Festival - Short Stories, Episode 3

The latest in a series of short stories set at Festivals/Events running on Radio 4 is by Val McDermid and is called Same Crime, Next Year. It was on last Sunday but you can listen again for the next 25 days via iplayer or the website. Next Sunday, the story is by David Mark.

From the BBC Radio 4 website:

Tonight, a new story by Val McDermid, who is one of the co-founders of the Theakston's Crime Writing Festival, held every July in Harrogate, and which has become one of the biggest celebrations of the genre in the world.

Her story, "Same Crime, Next Year" is set at Harrogate and imagines the fallout from a torrid affair between two crime writers.

Last Thursday (21st July), on the opening night of this year's Crime Festival in Harrogate, Val was awarded the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, joining past winners Sara Paretsky, Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter and Reginald Hill.

Reader: Siobhan Redmond
Writer: Val McDermid
Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

New Reviews: Caldwell, Kerr, Leon, McDermid, Nesbo, Nickson, Shaw

Here are seven reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and four are completely new.

New competition - win a weekend pass to CrimeFest 2015.

A reminder that FriendFeed has now closed. Our crime and mystery group has a new home on Facebook - Petrona's Crime and Mystery Friends. It's a closed group but there are admins in all time zones so you won't have to wait long to be approved. Do join us - new members are very welcome!

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

New Reviews

Amanda Gillies reviews Ian Caldwell's The Fifth Gospel - one of the best books she has ever read;

Bernie Gunther is back in Philip Kerr's The Lady from Zagreb, reviewed here by Norman Price;

Michelle Peckham reviews the newest in the Brunetti series by Donna Leon, Falling in Love;


Susan White reviews Val McDermid's latest standalone, The Skeleton Road;

I review Jo Nesbo's Blood on Snow tr. Neil Smith which is about a hitman named Olav;


Lynn Harvey reviews Chris Nickson's Dark Briggate Blues which introduces enquiry agent Dan Markham, and is set  in Leeds in the 1950s

and Terry Halligan reviews William Shaw's A House of Knives, the second book in the 1960s Breen and Tozer trilogy.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Review: The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid, March 2015, 464 pages, Sphere, ISBN: 0751551287

Reviewed by Susan White.
(Read more of Susan's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

In an old abandoned building in Edinburgh, a surveyor struggles with his fear of heights to check the state of the roof. He is horrified when he finds the skeleton of a man hidden in a turret at one of the corners. The small Cold Case specialist unit is called in to investigate. When the death is found to be the result of a gunshot eight years previously, Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie and her assistant DC Jason Murray, must first identity the body before starting to get to grips with finding the murderer.

Meanwhile in Oxford, Professor Maggie Blake is reluctantly celebrating her fiftieth birthday. She has a long and successful career in the subject of Geopolitics, particularly of the countries of the former Yugoslavia but her personal relationships leave a lot to desire after the love of her life, Dimitar Petrovic, walked out of her life without a backward glance.

Some lawyers who are working for the International Criminal Tribunal to bring war criminals from the former Yugolavia to trial have been tasked with finding the individual who is killing the very people they are working to bring to justice. Their search leads them to Edinburgh and to Karen and Jason's investigations. Meanwhile the police evidence leads Karen and Jason's search to Oxford, Maggie and the missing Dimitar.

Running through the book are the horrific events in the conflicts leading up to the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s including the siege and almost destruction of Dubrovnik. When reading this, I could not help but think of the similar events happening in the world today, the atrocities, destruction and deaths.

THE SKELETON ROAD is a very sad book but a good read as always offered by this author. This is a stand-alone book rather than a continuation of a series.

Susan White, March 2015

New Reviews: McDermid, McGilloway, Masters, Meyer, Moffat, Rimington, Sherez, Williams, Winspear

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

Maxine Clarke reviews Val McDermid's The Vanishing Point, a standalone with a couple of brief cameos from an earlier book;

Lynn Harvey reviews the paperback release of Brian McGilloway's Little Girl Lost which she is pleased to see is the first in a new series;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Priscilla Masters's Smoke Alarm, the fourth in the Martha Gunn, Coroner, series;

Earlier this week Michelle Peckham reviewed Deon Meyer's Dead Before Dying tr Madeleine van Biljon and we also interviewed the author;

Amanda Gillies reviews G J Moffat's Protection, the fourth in this series which has takn a different (and more appealing to Amanda) direction;

Geoff Jones reviews the paperback release of Stella Rimington's Rip Tide;

Terry Halligan reviews Stav Sherez's A Dark Redemption which is the first in a new police series;

Terry also reviews Andrew Williams's The Poison Tide set in the First World War

and Susan White reviews Jacqueline Winspear's eighth Maisie Dobbs book, A Lesson in Secrets now out in paperback and a series Susan calls "a real treat".

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.

Harrogate - New Blood

And on to the next panel. Val McDermid's very popular "New Blood". As you can see the room is huge and I was so far back I had to watch the tv screen and couldn't take any useful photos.

From the Programme:
Always a festival ‘must see’. Queen of Crime Val McDermid has hand-picked four of the hottest new talents on the scene and invited them to discuss their debut novels. Eager readers on the lookout for the next big thing will be spoiled for choice as Val introduces Elizabeth Haynes (Into The Darkest Corner), David Mark (The Dark Winter), Oliver Harris (The Hollow Man) and Kate Rhodes (Crossbones Yard).

My notes:

VM gets sent piles of debut books so she can pick authors for the panel. Keeps her up to date as well as getting a list for hitman. Crime fiction has expanded over the years, you can go anywhere do anything. Buy & Try!

All here because VM loved characters and voices.

OH - police procedural very unlike Dixon of Dock Green

LH - took pole-dancing clasees for research.

DM - a man of mystery! The Dark Winter is set in "joyous sea side town of Hull" as fun as you'd might expect...

KR is a poet

[then followed an intro to all the books - links to reviews are above.]

LH - the OCD plot was device for word count (as written for NaNoWriMo) and think of what to do next. VM used to send Kate Brannigan to the supermarket for similar reasons.

DM - born in Carlisle.

OH - write to explore other aspects of people's lives, experimental form to take apart what's going on.

LH - worked for police intelligence - wrote romance in playground, 50 shades of jelly baby (VM). Massive crime fiction fan but could never find any justification for crime, so was part of reason she applied for police job, to inspire her fiction.

Boundary between crime fact and fiction. Darkness in book. VM can read violence but terribly squeamish.

DM - write about what you know. As a journalist for 7 years has met many victims of crime (crime reporter). Natural affinity. Lucky to get job at 17, almost immediately attending murder trial.

KR fed up with poetry after 15 years, very lonely. Like to have a conversation with readers, loved crime fiction, very classy and very good at the moment especially in Britain.

VM - you have to care about a character whether you like or hate them.

VM - George Bennett in A Place of Execution was given self-doubt as a result of It's a Wonderful Life.

DM's main character is very earnest, good - which is tiresome and he has arguments with him in his head. VM says What drives McAvoy is his love for wife and child

KR's next book is about bankers dying (big cheer from the audience).

New Reviews: Baker, Bateman, Kelly, McDermid, Mercier, Watson

Win 3 Richard Nottingham mysteries by Chris Nickson (UK only).

Here are this week's 6 new reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Adam Baker's Juggernaut which has two female mercenaries as leads (for a change);

Dan Starkey is back in (Colin) Bateman's Nine Inches, reviewed here by Geoff Jones;

Maxine Clarke reviews the American edition of Erin Kelly's The Sick Rose which has been retitled to: The Dark Rose;

Michelle Peckham reviews Val McDermid's latest Tony Hill/Carol Jordan novel, The Retribution which is now out in paperback;

Lynn Harvey reviews Pascal Mercier's Perlmann's Silence, tr. Shaun Whiteside which though not a traditional crime novel, does involve some crime(s);

and Susan White reviews the paperback release of S J Watson's Before I Go To Sleep.

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 Colin Bateman, Gerald Jay, Pascal Mercier, Stuart Neville and Evonne Wareham have been added to these pages this week.

New Reviews: Anderson, Ferris, McDermid, Moffat, Stanley, Templeton & Website Updates

Earlier today I discovered that Scotland will have its first dedicated crime festival in September: Bloody Scotland so I have gone with a Scottish theme today (with the exception of a review of the current (African) competition prize!)

...and the competition prize: Win Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley (no geographical restrictions).

Here are this week's reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Lin Anderson's sixth Rhona Macleod instalment, Final Cut (look out for Amanda's review of Picture Her Dead which I have in the queue to post, plus the first few books in this series are extremely cheap in Kindle and epub format at the moment);

Rich Westwood reviews Gordon Ferris's The Unquiet Heart the second in the post-WW2 Danny McRae PI series (also available at a good price on Kindle);

Laura Root reviews Val McDermid's non-series book, Trick of the Dark;

Amanda also reviews Blindside the third in this series by G J Moffat;

Michelle Peckham reviews the current competition prize, Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley calling it "a very entertaining read"

and Michelle also reviews Aline Templeton's Cradle to Grave the latest in the "Big Marge" series.

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

Website Update

State of play at 22.01.12:

The Author Websites page now lists 917 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated (added since last weekend - Richard Crompton, R J Ellory, Mari Hannah, James McGee and Karen Maitland).

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1735 authors (8893 titles with links to 2174 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: George Arion, M K Bates, David Belbin, Nancy Bilyeau, Laurent Binet, Kevin Brophy, Peter James, Cottrell, Richard Crompton, Howard Cunnell, Maurizio De Giovanni, Hannah Dennison, Mark Douglas-Home, Zoran Drvenkar, Ruth Dugdall, Caryl Ferey, Camilla Grebe & Asa Traff, Alex Grecian, Tom Grieves, Paul Grossman, Penny Hancock, Mari Hannah, Antonio Hill, Hjorth-Rosenfeldt, Bogdan Hrib, Ewart Hutton, Victor Arnar Ingolfsson, Laurie R King, Peter Leonard, David Mark, Alex Marwood, Matt McGuire, Hakan Ostlundh, Chris Pavone, Oliver Potzsch, Jutta Progijt, Kate Rhodes, Jacqui Rose, Alexander Soderberg, Dag Solstad, Jason Steel, Oana Stoica-Mujea, Ferdinand von Schirach, Kate Williams, Tom Winship.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Geraint Anderson, Patti Battison, M C Beaton, James Becker, Mark Billingham Benjamin Black, Helen Black, Sara Blaedel, Richard Blake, Xavier-Marie Bonnot, Stephen Booth, Rhys Bowen, Gyles Brandreth, William Brodrick, Ken Bruen, Andrea Camilleri, C S Challinor, Sam Christer, Cassandra Clark, Rory Clements, Alex Connor, Julie Corbin, James Craig, Adam Creed, Julia Crouch, Judith Cutler, Diego De Silva, P C/Paul Doherty, Carola Dunn, Steven Dunne, Patrick Easter, R J Ellory, Giorgio Faletti, Conor Fitzgerald, James Forrester, Karin Fossum, Christopher Fowler, Nicci French, Robert Goddard, Ann Granger, Barry Grant, Alex Gray, J M Gregson, M R Hall, Patricia Hall, Oliver Harris, C S Harris, John Harvey, Elizabeth Haynes, James Henry, Paulus Hochgatterer, Arnaldur Indridason, Quintin Jardine, Michael Jecks, Roderic Jeffries, Paul Johnston, Susanna Jones, Alan Judd, Jim Kelly, Graeme/G W Kent, Bill Kitson, Bernard Knight, Tom Knox, Marek Krajewski, Roberta Kray, Lynda La Plante, Camilla Lackberg, T S Learner, Donna Leon, Peter Lovesey, Matt Lynn, Karen Maitland, Edward Marston, Andrew Martin, Faith Martin, Peter May, Kathleen McCaul, Andy McDermott, James McGee, M J McGrath, The Medieval Murderers, Danny Miller, G J Moffat, Susan Moody, R N Morris, Ian Morson, Colin Murray, Amy Myers, Hakan Nesser, Chris Nickson, Felix Palma, Caro Peacock, Anne Perry, Leif GW Persson, Sarah Pinborough, R T Raichev, Mary Reed and Eric Mayer, Linda Regan, Ruth Rendell, Craig Robertson, Imogen Robertson, Eileen Robertson, Rosemary Rowe, Pauline Rowson, Craig Russell, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Kate Sedley, Bob Shepherd, Frank Smith, Alexander McCall Smith, Roz Southey, Simon Spurrier, Gunnar Staalesen, Lyndon Stacey, Cath Staincliffe, Veronica Stallwood, Jon Stock, D J Taylor, James Thompson, Rebecca Tope, M J Trow, Nicola Upson, Roland Vernon, Jason Webster, Louise Welsh, Andrew Williams, Elizabeth Wilson, Laura Wilson, Jacqueline Winspear, Tom Wood, Simon Wood and Juli Zeh.

If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.

New Reviews: Bayard, Cotterill, Durbridge, Hannah, McDermid, Neville, Ohlsson & New Competition

New Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Louis Bayard's The School of Night set in modern day, and Elizabethan England;

Lynn Harvey reviews Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat which is now out in paperback and she makes an unexpected comparison with a well-known US series...;

I review the audio version of Francis Durbridge's Tim Frazer Again read by Anthony Head;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage which is now out in paperback, and which reminded her of Barbara Vine's earlier work;

Maxine Clarke reviews the new Tony Hill-Carol Jordan from Val McDermid, The Retribution;

Terry Halligan reviews Stuart Neville's debut, The Twelve aka The Ghosts of Belfast (US) which he thought was brilliant and original

and I also review the debut from Kristina Ohlsson: Unwanted, tr. Sarah Death which is gripping despite being a bit predictable.

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 Declan Burke, Patrick Conrad, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, J D Mallinson, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Sam Ripley and Norman Russell have been added to these pages this week.

World Book Club - Podcasts

Two new podcasts which may be of interest to Euro Crime readers have become recently available courtesy of BBC World Book Club:

World Book Club invites the globe's great authors to discuss their best known novel.

This monthly programme, presented by Harriett Gilbert, includes questions from World Service listeners.

The most recent author to feature is Val McDermid and prior to that, Boris Akunin. The interview with Jo Nesbo is still available as well as several more at the BBC website.

Val McDermid news

Val McDermid's latest newsletter has just come out. You can sign up for it at her website but here are a couple of snippets:

Before I went on holiday, I was working against the clock to complete the seventh novel to feature profiler Tony Hill and police officer Carol Jordan. UNREDEEMABLE will be released in the UK on September 1st, published by Little, Brown. [] UNREDEEMABLE features the return of Jacko Vance, the villain at the heart of the second Tony & Carol novel, THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD. Many people have asked me over the years about Vance's fate. This book will, I hope, answer their questions. It's dark, it's bloody and it pushes my characters to their limits.

I've had a lot of my American readers asking when TRICK OF THE DARK will be available in the US. I'll be honest - my US publishing history has been a chequered affair. Sometimes it's felt as if US publishers think it best not to tell anyone they're actually publishing my books... So, with TRICK OF THE DARK, I'm taking a sideways step to an indie publisher, Bywater Books. And not just because the editor-in-chief is my wife... I genuinely think that indie publishers can bring a passion to publishing that doesn't always follow through in the big commercial houses. So in September, Bywater will be publishing TRICK OF THE DARK in trade paperback and e-book form in the US. Our marketing slogan will be, 'The girl who Stieg Larsson read,' for reasons that will be obvious to all of you who have read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

New Reviews: Cleeves, Cumming, Henry, Hilton, McDermid, Robertson, Tallis

Here are this week's new reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews the new Vera Stanhope novel from Ann Cleeves: Silent Voices;

Geoff Jones reviews Charles Cumming's The Trinity Six;

Amanda Gillies enjoyed the return of Jack Frost in James Henry's First Frost;

Michelle Peckham review the fourth in the Joe Hunter series by Matt Hilton: Cut and Run, now out in paperback;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the paperback release of Val McDermid's Trick of the Dark;

Terry Halligan reviews Random by Craig Robertson now out in paperback (both EC reviewers have loved it);

and Laura Root reviews Death and the Maiden by Frank Tallis, the newest and sixth in his historical, Vienna based Dr Liebermann series.

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

Review: The Sounds of Crime Anthology (audio book)

The Sounds of Crime Edited by Maxim Jakubowski with stories by Lawrence Block, Mark Billingham, Christopher Fowler, Peter James and Val McDermid, read by multiple narrators (Whole Story Audio Books, September 2010, CD ISBN: 978 1 40743 572 5)

The Sounds of Crime is a collection of especially commissioned short stories on the theme of "audio". The stories are not available in print. Each story is about 30 minutes long and there is a short introduction from editor Maxim Jakubowski at the beginning of the collection.

Dolly's Trash and Treasures by Laurence Block narrated by Buffy Davis
This is probably my favourite of the set. Set in America, Dolly a compulsive hoarder is visited by a series of officials with the story conveyed almost completely through dialogue between Dolly and her visitors. An atmospheric and very creepy story in which my sympathy switched as the tale progresses.

Meet Me at the Crematorium by Peter James narrated by Eve Karpf
Fed up with her bullying husband Trevor, Janet travels to Germany to start a new life with a man she's recently met over the internet. But the story doesn't go the way you'd expect from such a description...

Happy Holidays by Val McDermid narrated by Mike Grady
This is a mini Tony Hill-Carol Jordan outing as they are faced with a case of murders being committed on festive days such as Bonfire Night. Tony fears a Santa will die at Christmas. This is a good sampler of this series which is well known, at least in the tv version Wire in the Blood, for its unpleasant methods of murder and this one includes a couple of memorable descriptions.

The Walls by Mark Billingham narrated by Eric Meyers
Best known for the London Tom Thorne series (soon to be on SkyOne), Mark Billingham writes this unsettling tale in America. A man and woman arrive at the same hotel. The man says he's a contractor, the woman's there for a family reunion of sorts, but one them is lying. Attraction and necessity takes its course - giving a new meaning to the phrase "you'll hate yourself in the morning".

The Deceivers by Christopher Fowler narrated by John Hasler
This has a Tales of the Unexpected feel to it. Presented as a monologue, the young narrator tells of how he and a friend relieved the boredom of living in a small town on the Devon-Cornwall border and the unforeseen consequences.

I enjoyed The Sounds of Crime. The stories are well written, as you'd expect from these top crime authors. Each story held my interest throughout. Stories of this length are very suitable for commuters or those who struggle a bit to fit in a full length audio book or for someone to just sample the audio book experience. The narrators are very good with special credit to Buffy Davis who made Dolly very memorable.

New Reviews: Hosp, Kernick, McDermid, Moffat, Vargas, Wilson

This month's competitions:

Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

check back later this week for an exciting Stieg Larsson competition.

Here are this week's new reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Among Thieves by David Hosp; though written by an American author and set in the US there is a St Patrick's Day and Irish connection;

Maxine Clarke reviews Simon Kernick's new thriller The Last Ten Seconds;

Laura Root reviews the paperback release of the latest in the Tony Hill series from Val McDermid, Fever of the Bone;

Amanda Gillies reviews G J Moffat's debut, now out in paperback: Daisychain;

Michelle Peckham reviews the first Adamsberg novel from Fred Vargas, tr. Sian Reynolds, also now out in paperback - The Chalk Circle Man

and Maxine also reviews The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson

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

New Reviews: Egeland, Gregorio, MacBride, McDermid, Millar, Rankin, Smith

There are two competitions running in September. One is for 2 children's adventure-thriller books by Andy Briggs and is open to the UK, and the other is for A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio (reviewed below) which is open world-wide. Details on how to enter can be found on the competition page.

Here are this week's reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews The Guardians of the Covenant by Tom Egeland concluding with "[it] should keep you hooked from cover to cover";

Norman Price reviews this month's competition prize, A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio;

Paul Blackburn reviews the futuristic crime novel Halfhead by Stuart B MacBride;

Maxine Clarke reviews the newest in the Tony Hill series by Val McDermid - Fever of the Bone - beginning her review by writing that "it is written with multi award-winning Val McDermid's usual professionalism, dependability, style and apparent effortlessness";

Michelle Peckham reviews Sam Millar's The Dark Place;

Pat Austin has no complaints about Ian Rankin's The Complaints

and I recently reviewed (on this blog), the audio book version of The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith.

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

Val McDermid Social Networking site

I received this press release yesterday, embargoed until today:

To tie in with the publication of Val McDermid’s first novel with her new publisher; Little, Brown are today Thursday 10 September launching Rigmarole, the social networking site featured in her new novel Fever of the Bone.

Emma Williams, Brand Manager at Little, Brown masterminded the site. She says, “We created the site as a fun, innovative and interactive way for Val McDermid fans and new readers alike to connect with each other discuss Val’s work and share information with each other as they would on any other social networking site. The site is already populated by scores of Val McDermid fans and be careful, there might be the unwanted profile of the killer on there soon…”

Val’s many fans who follow her current website have been invited to join on their e-newsletter, which has at the very least 4,700 loyal subscribers. The site is intended to be a place where Val’s fans feel at home and they will be encouraged to populate the site and interact with it and start using it as their social network.

All the victims from the book are on the site and are ‘played’ by various members of the Little, Brown marketing team.

Upon publication, the killer will also be introduced to the site.

Visit Rigmarole, here.

A review of Fever to the Bone will be available on Euro Crime very soon.

New Reviews: Mike Ripley's crime file, Scott, Tallis, Wingfield

This week, Mike Ripley reviews some new releases whilst the rest of the reviews cover some recent paperbacks that we can recommend:

New Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's Crime File he reviews When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson, A Darker Domain by Val McDermid and Lost in Juarez by Douglas Lindsay;

Amanda Gillies enthuses about The Crystal Skull by Manda Scott;

Terry Halligan thoroughly enjoyed his time in 1903 Austria in Fatal Lies by Frank Tallis

and Maxine Clarke reviews the last ever Frost book, A Killing Frost by R D Wingfield which sees Inspector Frost juggling many cases whilst trying to stay put in Denton CID.

A Place of Execution - casting details

Further to my post in January that Val McDermid's A Place of Execution was to be televised, news is that it will star Juliet Stevenson and Greg Wise:

Filming has begun on a drama based on Val McDermid's top-selling novel A Place of Execution - the tale of the mystery surrounding a missing 13-year-old girl.

Juliet Stevenson (Truly Madly Deeply) plays a high-flying TV Reporter, Catherine Heathcote, who is making a film based on the disappearance of schoolgirl, Alison Carter (Poppy Goodburn), back in 1963. The film tells the story of George Bennett (Lee Ingleby) the young Detective Inspector who worked relentlessly on the case, and delves into the lives of Alison’s mother Ruth (Emma Cunniffe), step-father Hawkin (Greg Wise), and the locals in the tight-knit village of Scardale.

Read the rest of the article on the ITV website.

New Reviews & A New Competition

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the new competition:

Latest Reviews:

In Mike Ripley's latest Crime File he reviews: A Cure For All Diseases by Reginald Hill, Unforgotten by Clare Francis, Sacrifice by S J Bolton and Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis;

Maxine Clarke is unimpressed by Meltdown by Martin Baker (which seems to have had a lot of money spent on the marketing) calling it a "mechanically insipid effort" but she gives a suggestion for a better read in her review;

Maxine finds the latest Tony Hill book by Val McDermid, Beneath the Bleeding a thrilling read, only let down by the "ludicrous motivation" of the bad guy;

More praise for the re-emergence of Crime and Punishment's Porfiry Petrovich in A Vengeful Longing by R N Morris comes from Pat Austin

and Laura Root reviews the second in the Palestine set series by Matt Rees, The Saladin Murders (aka A Grave in Gaza).


Current Competition (closing date 31 March):

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

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

A Place of Execution to be televised

Val McDermid's A Place of Execution is a wonderful read and one I'd recommend to anyone. Now comes news that it is to be made into a three part tv series:

ITV has commissioned a new three part drama from the team behind Wire in the Blood.

Production will commence in April on A Place of Execution, based on Val McDermid's best-selling novel. Billed as a "taut psychological thriller", the drama "explores, exposes and explodes the borderline between reality and illusion in a multi-layered narrative that turns expectations on their heads".

It follows the story of a police officer who tells the story of an investigation into the disappearance of a 13 year old girl to a writer who subsequently discovers new evidence that "shatters the past and turns the world upside down".

Wire in the Blood (tv series) news

From Val McDermid's recent newsletter:

News from Wire in the Blood: Series 5 will begin its run in the UK in July. I don't have details of precise dates, and I don't yet know about foreign transmissions. But I've seen it, and it is very, very good. Don't miss it.
The production team will be flying out to Texas at the end of July to film a special set in the US. Watch this space for more details. (I'm not going, btw. Texas in August? You have to be kidding. No offence to my Texas pals, but it's way too hot for somebody raised in Fife.)

The next book in the Wire in the Blood series is 'Beneath the Bleeding', out on 6th August. You can read the synopsis and an extract on Val's webpage.