Win: A Pass to CrimeFest 2019

CrimeFest has kindly donated a pair of weekend passes to the upcoming event in Bristol (9-12 May, 2019).

The passes - worth £200 - provide access to all panels and interviews, Thursday through Sunday, as well as a delegate goody bag and a programme. (Accommodation, food and travel expenses are not included.)

2019's headline authors include John Harvey and Robert Thorogood, and there will be a special appearance by Agatha Raisin herself - Ashley Jensen.

The competition closes on 24 March 2019 at 11.59pm.
There are no geographical restrictions on entrants, but please only enter if you are able to attend. (The passes are non-transferable.)
Only 1 entry per person please.

To enter the competition, put Petrona and the answer to the question below, in the subject line of an email, adding your name and address in the body, and send to competition@crimefest.com

Who won the very first Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year?

The winner of the 2019 Petrona Award will be announced at the CrimeFest Gala Dinner (tickets available separately).

Get more from Euro Crime by liking the Facebook page. 

Win: A Pass to CrimeFest 2017

CrimeFest have kindly donated a pair of weekend passes to the upcoming event in Bristol on 18-21 May 2017.

Each pass includes admittance to all panels and interviews Thursday to Sunday, as well as a delegate goody bag and a programme, and is worth £195.

2017's featured guest authors include Ann Cleeves, Anthony Horowitz and Peter Lovesey.

The competition will close on 14 April 2017 at 11.59pm.
There are no geographical restrictions on entrants.
Only 1 entry per person please.

To enter the competition, please send the answer to the question below, along with your name and address to competition@crimefest.com

Who won the 2016 Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year?

The winner of the 2017 Petrona Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner (tickets available separately).

Keep up to date with Euro Crime by liking the Facebook page. 

Win: A Pass to CrimeFest 2016

CrimeFest have kindly donated a weekend pass to the upcoming event in Bristol on 19-22 May 2016.

The pass includes admittance to all panels and interviews Thursday to Sunday, as well as a delegate goody bag and a programme, and is worth £195.

2016's featured guest authors include Ian Rankin, Peter James and Anne Holt.

From the CrimeFest website:

CRIMEFEST is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. Whether you come with someone or on your own, by the end of the weekend you are likely to have made new friends. Drawing top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world, CRIMEFEST gives all delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in a friendly, informal and inclusive atmosphere. The programme consists of interviews with its featured and highlighted guest authors; over forty panels with more than a hundred participating authors; a gala awards dinner*; and possibly a surprise or two.

*The Petrona Award 2016 winner will also be announced at the Gala Dinner.

As CrimeFest will be drawing the winners, all entries will be forwarded on to them. I've included a box in the form below for entrants to agree to this.

The competition will close on 6 May 2016 at 11.59pm.
There are no geographical restrictions on entrants.
Only 1 entry per person please.
All entries will be deleted once they have been forwarded to CrimeFest.

To enter the competition, please complete the form below.

Keep up to date with Euro Crime by liking the Facebook page.

Win: The Last Panthers on DVD

Euro Crime has 3 copies of the DVD box-set of The Last Panthers to giveaway. To be in with a chance to win a copy, please enter your details in the form at the bottom of this post.

Only one entry per person please.
UK residents only.
Closing date is 24 March 2016 at 23.59.

Watch the bonus clip which also contains brief interviews with cast and crew:

All six episodes of the drama series created by Jack Thorne. Samantha Morton plays Naomi, a private British claims specialist instructed by her boss Tom (John Hurt) to recover diamonds stolen by a Serbian group calling themselves the Pink Panthers from a bank in Marseilles. Also on the hunt is French-Algerian cop Khalil (Tahar Rahim), in a chase that will take them into the murky underworld of gangsters and gangs in Eastern Europe. The series features an opening theme song from the late David Bowie.

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.

Win: A Pass to CrimeFest 2015

CrimeFest have kindly donated 4 passes to the upcoming event in Bristol on 14-17 May 2015.
The winner will receive a pair of passes and two runners-up will receive a pass each.

Each pass includes admittance to all panels and interviews Thursday to Sunday, as well as a delegate goody bag and a programme, and is worth £175.

From the CrimeFest website:

First organised in June 2008, CRIMEFEST is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. It has not only become one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, but is also one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar. The annual convention was featured as one of ‘the best crime writing festivals around the world’ in the Guardian and one of ‘the 50 Best Festivals’ in The Independent. CRIMEFEST draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world and gives delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in a friendly, informal and inclusive atmosphere.

The Petrona Award 2015 winner will be announced at the Gala Dinner with Maj Sjöwall presenting the Trophy to the winning author or their representative.

As CrimeFest will be drawing the winners, all entries will be forwarded on to them. I've included a box in the form below for entrants to agree to this.

The competition will close on 23 April 2015 at 11.59pm.
There are no geographical restrictions on entrants.
Only 1 entry per person please.
All entries will be deleted once they have been forwarded to CrimeFest.

To enter the competition, please complete the form below.

Keep up to date with Euro Crime by liking the Facebook page.

New Reviews: Ceder, Dunn, Frank, Johnston, Kasasian, Kelly, Kernick, Mogford, Radmann

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, two have appeared on the blog over the last three weeks and seven are completely new.

The competition closes tonight at 11.59pm: win an iBook of Invisible by Christine Poulson (no geographical restrictions).


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

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews Camilla Ceder's Babylon tr. Marlaine Delargy, the sequel to Frozen Moment, set in Gothenburg;

Amanda Gillies reviews Slingshot by Matthew Dunn, the third in his "Spycatcher" series;

Geoff Jones reviews Matthew Frank's debut novel, If I Should Die which introduces ex-Army turned trainee police officer Joe Stark;

Terry Halligan reviews Paul Johnston's The White Sea, the seventh in the Greece-based Alex Mavros series;

I review The Curse of the House of Foskett by M R C Kasasian, the sequel to the excellent The Mangle Street Murders;


Michelle Peckham reviews Erin Kelly's The Ties That Bind;

Terry also reviews Simon Kernick's Stay Alive which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Thomas Mogford's Hollow Mountain, the latest in the Spike Sanguinetti series based on and around Gibraltar

and Lynn also reviews The Crack by Christopher Radmann set in 1970s South Africa.





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: Brett, Camilleri, Connor, Griffiths, James, Robertson, Russell, Webster, Zeh

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

Plus a new competition - win an iBook of Invisible by Christine Poulson (no geographical restrictions).


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

New Reviews

Mark Bailey reviews the new Charles Paris mystery from Simon Brett, The Cinderella Killer;

I review the Judges anthology, which contains stories by Andrea Camilleri, Carlo Lucarelli and Giancarlo De Cataldo (tr. Joseph Farrell, Alan Thawley and Eileen Horne);

Amanda Gillies reviews The Caravaggio Conspiracy by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews the latest in Elly Griffiths's Norfolk-based Ruth Galloway series, The Outcast Dead;

Geoff Jones reviews Want You Dead, the tenth in Peter James's Roy Grace series;

Terry Halligan reviews Craig Robertson's The Last Refuge, set in the Faroe Islands;

Amanda also reviews Fatal Act by Leigh Russell, the latest in her DI Geraldine Steel series;

Lynn Harvey reviews Jason Webster's Blood Med, set in Valencia

and Laura Root reviews Juli Zeh's Decompression tr. John Cullen which is set in Lanzarote.

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.

Win: Invisible by Christine Poulson

I very much enjoyed Christine Poulson's Cassandra James series and I'm pleased to report that Christine has a new book out, a standalone, called Invisible.

Sometimes it's better not to know...
Lisa has a secret lover. Once a month she escapes from caring alone for her son, who has cerebral palsy, and meets Jay, just for the weekend, free from all responsibilities. It’s perfect - until the day when Jay doesn't show up, and everything she thought she knew about him turns out to be a lie.
For Jay it was perfect, too. Five years ago he fled witness protection after his wife and son were murdered and began a new life. But he shouldn't have let himself fall in love with Lisa, because now the villains are onto him and he must disappear again.


Invisible is available a print and ebook and the publisher, Accent Press, has kindly given Euro Crime 5 copies of the iBook version to give away.


5 winners will receive a voucher code from Accent Press that they can exchange for the iBook. This does mean that I will have to send the winners' details to Accent Press, and I've included a box in the form below for entrants to agree to.

The competition will close on 29 June at 11.59pm.
There are no geographical restrictions on entrants.
Only 1 entry per person please.
All entries will be deleted once the winners' details have been forwarded to Accent Press.

To enter the competition, please complete the form below.

Keep up to date with Euro Crime by liking the Facebook page.

New Reviews: Benn, Donovan, Evans, Garrett, Kaaberbol & Friis, Mark, Millar, Mishani, Taussig

This week's set of reviews, added to Euro Crime today, is a mixture of new reviews and a catch-up of those posted directly on the blog whilst I've been away so you may have read some of them before if you're a regular :).

A reminder of the current competition: win The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig (10 copies, UK & Ireland).

Laura Root reviews Tom Benn's Chamber Music, the second in the 'Bane' series set in Manchester;

Geoff Jones reviews Michael Donovan's debut Behind Closed Doors which introduces PI Eddie Flynn;

Susan White reviews the Kindle release of Geraldine Evans's Up in Flames, the first in the Casey and Catt series;

It's a very welcome return for Margaret Murphy who in conjunction with Professor Dave Barclay is A D Garrett and their first collaboration, Everyone Lies is reviewed here by Terry Halligan;

I recently reviewed Invisible Murder by Kaaberbol and Friis, tr. Tara Chace

Amanda Gillies reviews David Mark's Orginal Skin, the second outing for Hull's DS Aector McAvoy;

Michelle Peckham reviews Louise Millar's Accidents Happen;

Lynn Harvey reviews the International Dagger short-listed The Missing File by Israeli author D A Mishani, tr. Steven Cohen

and Susan also reviews this month's competition prize, The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig.



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.

Win: The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig

Euro Crime has ten copies of The Distinguished Assassin by Nick Taussig to giveaway. [The Euro Crime review is here.]

To enter the draw, just answer the question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to UK and Ireland residents only and will close on 30 June 2013.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winners have been notified.)

1952. Stalin's Russia. Persecuted by vicious MVD agent Vladimir Primakov, betrayed by his beautiful wife and forced to the very bottom of life by the cruel system he lives under, war hero and former professor Aleksei Klebnikov is offered a mission by the notorious thief-in-law Ivan Bessonov: to assassinate six leading Communists, all of them evil men. Aleksei agrees to undertake it, this mission, after which he will finally have his revenge on Primakov, who also stole his wife. But when, with just one man left to kill, Aleksei is suddenly reunited with her, he discovers that all is not quite what it seems and that perhaps he has an even greater enemy than Primakov, his wife and the Communist system. Written in Taussig's strong, distinctive voice, and with a great moral sense, The Distinguished Assassin is a fantastic achievement by a writer who has successfully married the fictional styles of crime and historical fiction, the novel containing pace and insight in equal measure. The story Taussig tells, of a persecuted intellectual's revenge against Russian Communists, is not only a tense, thrilling and addictive tale of one man s fight against a wicked and corrupt regime, but also an intelligent, thoughtful and moving account of life in Soviet Russia.

New Reviews: Camilleri, Cleeves, Haynes, Kernick, Lipska, MacLean, Roberts, Sherriff, Templeton

Win Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska (UK only)






Nine new reviews have been added to Euro Crime today:


I review Andrea Camilleri's The Dance of the Seagull tr. Stephen Sartarelli, the fifteenth in this charming series;



Lynn Harvey reviews Dead Water by Ann Cleeves, the fifth in the (recently televised) Shetland series;


Amanda Gillies reviews Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes, writing that her work "goes from strength to strength";
 

Terry Halligan reviews Simon Kernick's Ultimatum, the sequel to Siege;

Rich Westwood reviews this month's competition prize, Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska, and he's looking forward to the sequel;


Geoff Jones reviews S G MacLean's The Devil's Recruit, the fourth in her Alexander Seaton series set in seventeenth century Aberdeen;

Susan White reviews Mark Roberts's debut The Sixth Soul and found it "quite compelling";

Terry also reviews The Wells of St Mary's by R C Sherriff, now available as an ebook or POD, Terry says it was "much appreciated entertainment at the end of a hard day"

and Michelle Peckham reviews Evil for Evil by Aline Templeton, concluding that "Aline Templeton's books featuring Marjory Fleming keep improving with each new outing".




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.