New Reviews: Fowler, Fox, Johnston, Russell, Sjowall & Wahloo, Vine

Here are this week's new reviews and the last chance to enter this month's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Amanda Brown is a convert to the Bryant and May series by Christopher Fowler, she reviews the latest, The Victoria Vanishes, writing that she "enjoyed it immensely";

I leave Europe to visit Sydney where I review Kathryn Fox's Skin and Bone which I hope is the first of a new series starring Kate Farrer;

With the book cover that recently launched a 1000 blog entries (well at least three) - Paul Johnston's The Soul Collector is reviewed by Geoff Jones;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest from Craig Russell The Carnival Master which is the fourth outing for Hamburg detective Jan Fabel;

Maxine Clarke reviews Sjowall and Wahloo's The Laughing Policeman which she says "is another example of the controlled brilliance of this superb set of novels"

and in the second of a two part look at the latest from Baronesses James and Rendell, Fiona Walker reviews The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell); check out her earlier review of The Private Patient by P D James.


Current Competition:

Win a copy of Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes*

* restrictions apply (ends 31 August)

Mo Hayder's next book

Ritual was the first of the Walking Man series. According to amazon.co.uk, the follow-up, Skin, is scheduled for Feb 2010...

Both Euro Crime reviewers raved about Ritual, see here and here and on Mo Hayder's website you can download an article in which "Mo describes her thoughts about Jack Caffery, Ritual and the reason why she re-introduced him back into her latest novel".

Synopsis for Skin:

Barely a week has passed since the ending of Ritual, but for DI Jack Caffery and Sergeant Flea Marley life has not got any easier. The decayed body of a young woman has been found in the woods. All indications are that it's a suicide - but Caffery is not convinced. He is, however, supposed to be directing the high profile police-search for Misty Kitson, a B-list celebrity who has gone missing from a local health clinic. Plus he's becoming obsessed with Flea. In short, he is exhausted, over-worked and increasingly distracted. Flea is also distracted - but not by Jack. Something has jammed the lock of her car-boot. She can't open it - yet knows that what she will find inside will be very bad indeed. To make matters worse, someone is out there. Someone who can slip behind trees, under water or into people's houses where he watches from the shadows, unseen...

Favourite crime novels of the last century (a list)

I've copied this list from Danielle at A Work in Progress. It is "The 100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century, as selected by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's online members (compiled in 2000)." I've bolded the meagre few I have read. Own is another matter... I think I've read the Doyle and Rendell on the list but am not sure so have left them alone.

Allingham, Margery. The Tiger in the Smoke
Ambler, Eric. A Coffin for Dimitrios
Armstrong, Charlotte. A Dram of Poison
Atherton, Nancy. Aunt Dimity's Death
Ball, John. In the Heat of the Night
Barnard, Robert. Death by Sheer Torture
Barr, Nevada. Track of the Cat
Blake, Nicholas. The Beast Must Die
Block, Lawrence. When the Sacred Ginmill Closes
Brand, Christianna. Green for Danger
Brown, Frederic. The Fabulous Clipjoint
Buchan, John. The 39 Steps
Burke, James Lee. Black Cherry Blues
Cain, James M.. The Postman Always Rings Twice
Cannell, Dorothy. The Thin Woman
Carr, John Dickson. The Three Coffins
Caudwell, Sarah. Thus Was Adonis Murdered
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep
Christie, Agatha. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Connelly, Michael. The Concrete Blonde
Constantine, K.C.. The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
Crais, Robert. The Monkey's Raincoat
Crispin, Edmund. The Moving Toyshop
Crombie, Deborah. Dreaming of the Bones
Crumley, James. The Last Good Kiss
Dickinson, Peter. The Yellow Room Conspiracy
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles
DuMaurier, Daphne. Rebecca
Dunning, John. Booked to Die
Elkins, Aaron. Old Bones
Evanovich, Janet. One for the Money
Finney, Jack. Time and Again
Ford, G.M.. Who in Hell Is Wanda Fuca?
Francis, Dick. Whip Hand
Fremlin, Celia. The Hours Before Dawn
George, Elizabeth. A Great Deliverance
Gilbert, Michael. Smallbone Deceased
Grafton, Sue. "A" is for Alibi
Graham, Caroline. The Killings at Badger's Drift
Grimes, Martha. The Man With the Load of Mischief
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon
Hare, Cyril. An English Murder
Harris, Thomas. The Silence of the Lambs
Hiaasen, Carl. Tourist Season
Highsmith, Patricia. The Talented Mr. Ripley
Hill, Reginald. On Beulah Height
Hillerman, Tony. A Thief of Time
Himes, Chester. Cotton Comes to Harlem
Innes, Michael. Hamlet, Revenge
James, P.D.. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Kellerman, Faye. The Ritual Bath
Kellerman, Jonathan. When the Bough Breaks
King, Laurie. The Beekeeper's Apprentice
Langton, Jane. Dark Nantucket Noon
le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
Lehane, Dennie. Darkness, Take My Hand
Leonard, Elmore. Get Shorty
Lochte, Dick. Sleeping Dog
Lovesey, Peter. Rough Cider
MacDonald, John D.. The Deep Blue Good-by
MacDonald, Philip. The List of Adrian Messenger
Macdonald, Ross. The Chill
Maron, Margaret. Bootlegger's Daughter
Marsh, Ngaio. Death of a Peer (aka Surfeit of Lampreys)
McBain, Ed. Sadie When She Died
McClure, James. The Sunday Hangman
McCrumb, Sharyn. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O
Millar, Margaret. Stranger in My Grave
Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress
Muller, Marcia. Edwin of the Iron Shoes
Neel, Janet. Death's Bright Angel
O'Connell, Carol. Mallory's Oracle
Padgett, Abigail. Child of Silence
Paretsky, Sara. Deadlock
Parker, Robert. Looking for Rachel Wallace
Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The Club Dumas
Perry, Thomas. Vanishing Act
Peters, Elizabeth. Crocodile on the Sandbank
Peters, Ellis. One Corpse Too Many
Pronzini, Bill. Blue Lonesome
Queen, Ellery. Cat of Many Tails
Rendell, Ruth. No More Dying Then
Rice, Craig. The Wrong Murder
Rinehart, Mary Roberts. The Circular Staircase
Robinson, Peter. Blood at the Root
Rosen, Richard. Strike Three You're Dead
Ross, Kate. A Broken Vessel
Rozan, S.J.. Concourse
Sayers, Dorothy. Murder Must Advertise
Sjowall & Wahloo. The Laughing Policeman
Stout, Rex. Some Buried Caesar
Tey, Josephine. Brat Farrar
Thomas, Ross. Chinaman's Chance
Todd, Charles. A Test of Wills
Turow, Scott. Presumed Innocent
Upfield, Arthur. The Sands of Windee
Walters, Minette. The Ice House
White, Randy Wayne. Sanibel Flats
Woolrich, Cornell. I Married a Dead Man

Christopher Fowler's White Corridor on audio

The latest of Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May series to be made available on audio book, is White Corridor. Like its predecessors, Full Dark House, The Water Room, The Seventy-Seven Clocks and Ten-Second Staircase it's superbly narrated by Tim Goodman and I found this one to be the most humorous of the lot.

The premise behind the books is that John May and Arthur Bryant are two elderly detectives, way past retirement age who head up the PCU: The Peculiar Crimes Unit in an office above Mornington Crescent tube station. In the previous books, as well as the other PCU staff, London has been a major character. The books ooze arcane knowledge of the great city. This time though, the 'boys' are stuck in a snow storm and there's a suspicious death back at PCU HQ. It's up to the PCU's very own 'Diana Dors' to work out what's happened, guided by mobile phone conversations with Bryant and May whilst they track down a killer in the snow.

Yvonne Klein has already reviewed The White Corridor, for Euro Crime, and I agree totally with her. This is a series not to be missed either in print or on audio. I've checked the book out of the library to get a couple of quotes:


[May] had always prided himself on his ability to embrace change, and had at least retained a walking pace beside the growth of modern police technology, adopting new techniques as they arrived. Bryant, on the other hand, loitered several metres behind each development, and occasionally drifted off in the opposite direction.

and after finding themselves stranded in a blizzard (on their way to a Spiritualists' Convention):

"Look on the bright side, John. We've plenty of warm clothing in the back. You helped me pack all those outfits for the show."

If you think I'm sitting here dressed in a fig-leaf body stocking and a Protestant cleric's cassock, Arthur, you're sadly mistaken."

More New Tricks

From Digital Spy:

BBC One has confirmed that a sixth series of New Tricks is to air next year.

Filming on the old-timers cop show, which stars Amanda Redman alongside James Bolam, Dennis Waterman and Alun Armstrong, is expected to commence on a new run of eight episodes later this year in and around London. The fifth series wrapped its transmission run on Monday night, averaging 8.4m viewers and a respectable 35.8% share of the audience.

Carola Dunn blogs at Moments in Crime

Expat British author, Carola Dunn, is blogging this week at Moments in Crime. Her series features 1920s journalist Daisy Dalrymple who is of an aristocratic family but is trying to make her own way in the world. The 17th book in the series, Black Ship, is out in September.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk: It is 1925 and the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple, her husband Alec Fletcher and their recent twins move to a new, large house on the outskirts of London. Set in a small circle of houses with a communal garden, it seems like the idyllic setting - that is, until a murder victim turns up under the bushes of the communal garden. Now rumours of bootleggers, American gangsters and an international liquor smuggling operation via black ships turn everything upside down. Alec, in his role as Scotland Yard detective, has been assigned to ferret out the truth behind the murder - but it is up to Daisy to find out who the dead man is, what his relationship with her new neighbours was, why he was murdered - and who it was who did him in!

OT: Burn Notice on FX UK

There's been a lot of chatter on the DorothyL mailing list recently about this 'spy' series. My own interest in it is due to the fact that Michael "Stargate" Shanks will be guest appearing in series 2. An advert on FX has given the UK premiere date of 5th October. From the official Burn Notice website:

WHAT IS BURN NOTICE?

When spies get fired, they don’t get a letter from human resources.

They get BURNED...

This summer, USA Network presents the second season of Burn Notice, a sexy, action-packed original series starring Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a blacklisted spy. Dumped in his hometown of Miami without money or resources, Michael struggles to put his life back together and find out why he's been burned. In the meantime, he uses his unique skills and training to help people in need ... mostly people who can't get help from the police.

Burn Notice also stars Gabrielle Anwar as Fiona, a beautiful ex-IRA operative who happens to be Westen’s ex-girlfriend. Bruce Campbell stars as Sam, Michael’s closest buddy in town, a washed up military intelligence contact who is keeping an eye on Michael for the Feds. Also starring is Emmy® Award-winner Sharon Gless as Madeline, Michael’s hypochondriac mother, who couldn’t be happier to have her boy back in town.

Created and written by Matt Nix, Burn Notice combines the best of the action/thriller elements with surprising humor and an iconic new breed of spy.

Sherlock Homes: Nemesis (PC Game)

The Sherlock Homes: Nemesis game has been out since May but it only came to my attention when I read a review at the weekend in one of the Saturday supplements (can't find an online link).

The Game: After coming face-to-face with the mythical Cthulhu in his previous adventure on PC (“The Awakened”), Sherlock Holmes confronts Arsène Lupin, the gentleman-burglar made famous by the literature series penned by French writer Maurice Leblanc. Arsène Lupin, whose exploits are enjoyed by millions of readers throughout the world, provides the perfect foil for Holmes as he attempts to pull of the ultimate heist.

This battle of wits between the most famous detective of all time and the world's greatest thief takes us to late 19th century London. Arsène Lupin is a young French burglar at the beginning of a glittering career, who comes to town with one goal - defy Scotland Yard and Sherlock Holmes. He states that he will steal five objects of immense value in five days from prestigious sites such as the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Tower of London and even Buckingham Palace! Sherlock Holmes must use all his daring and ingenuity to avoid a terrible humiliation for England.

Read more about it and other Holmes games available at the official website.

XX writing as Enid Blyton

I suppose now that Sebastian Faulks was credited as 'writing as Ian Fleming' for Devil May Care, the floodgates are open for all manner of possibilities. Though this sort of thing has been going on covertly for yonks eg the 'new' Virginia Andrews, but publishers can now be more open should they wish. The BBC website has an update on the relaunch of the 'Enid Blyton' brand:

Some of Enid Blyton's most popular characters will make a return in a set of 20 new books, her estate has said.

The Famous Five, The Faraway Tree and Malory Towers will all feature in the books to be released over two years.

Chorion, which owns the rights to the characters, said the books would "remain true to Blyton's classic storytelling style and values".

In the first, The Famous Five's Survival Guide, they try to solve The Mystery of the Royal Dragon of Siam.

Chorion said the book would be "packed full of stolen treasure, problem-solving, traps and traitors".

In September, The Faraway Tree will return for the first time since 1951.

New stories from The Wishing-Chair, Malory Towers and The Secret Series books will be available in 2009.

Read the whole article on the BBC site.

Blyton was recently voted the UK's best loved writer.

There are some very unusual 'Enid Blyton' titles listed on amazon, including:

The Case of the Cactus, the Coot, and the Cowboy Boot: WITH The Case of the Seal Who Gets All Up in Your Face
and
The Case of the Gobbling Goop: WITH The Case of the Surfer Dude Who's Truly Rude

These are in the '5 on the case' series I've mentioned before.

Foyle's Peace?

Much buzzing on the blogs (eg Random Jottings) that Foyle's War is returning as Foyle's Peace. The Daily Mail has the following to say:

The final episode of Foyle’s War may have ended conclusively with the characters celebrating VE Day – but it seems the much-loved ITV1 drama is set for a post-war revival.

In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, star of the show Honeysuckle Weeks reveals that Foyle’s War has given way to a new series entitled Foyle’s Peace.

Honeysuckle, who plays driver Samantha Stewart to Michael Kitchen’s Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle, said: ‘I have the contracts so they’ve got quite far with it and, although I haven’t seen scripts, the idea is that it’ll be set after the Second World War.

and

Details of the new show have yet to be finalised, but Michael Kitchen is expected to reprise his role and Foyle’s peacetime exploits are likely to feature Sam more prominently.

Yet, according to Honeysuckle, in spite of the popularity of her character, her fee will remain the same.

She said: ‘My fee is not going up one bit. I’m a bit nice. I think I should be more of a prima donna.

‘But they probably won’t be able to afford Julian Ovenden any more because he has made a huge hit series in America [Cashmere Mafia], so they’ll have to pay him an awful lot of money or Sam will probably get dumped again.’

Read the whole article on the Daily Mail site.

Now, can anything be done about reinstating the axed Inspector Lynley mysteries?

New Reviews: Becker, Chattam, Hudson, James, Montalban, Wilson

This is my 1000th post on the blog, hard to believe!

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

Latest Reviews:

Amanda Gillies is very taken with James Becker's The First Apostle calling it an "utterly spellbinding book" and one you should seek out;

I was very disappointed with The Cairo Diary by Maxim Chattam which has both logistical and linguistical faults;

Guest reviewer Rik Shepherd takes a look at Death Comes by Amphora by Roger Hudson which is set in Ancient Athens; he finds the background information can swamp the plot at times;

In the first of a two part look at the latest from Baronesses James and Rendell, Fiona Walker reviews The Private Patient by P D James; check back next week for her review of The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell);

Mike Ripley reviews Tattoo by Manuel Vazquez Montalban the second in the Pepe Carvalho series which has just been published in English for the first time

and Maxine Clarke reviews Laura Wilson's Stratton's War which she calls "an excellent book: a fully rounded novel of London in the Blitz in the summer of 1940".

Current Competition:

Win a copy of Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes*

* restrictions apply (ends 31 August)

Secret becomes Memory

Just another warning about a title change. Philippe Grimbert's Secret (UK) was published as Memory in the US. The film of the book is called Un Secret and will be available on R2 DVD on 6th October.

Synopsis (of the book): Based on the author's own family history and already a colossal best-seller in Europe, UK readers are now being let in on the story of a family haunted by the secrets of their past: an illicit love affair, a lost child, and a devastating betrayal dating back to the Second World War. "The day after I turned fifteen, I finally discovered what I'd always known..." Growing up in post-war Paris the sickly only child of glamorous, athletic parents, the narrator invents for himself a make-believe brother - older, stronger, and more brilliant than he can ever be. It is only when the boy begins talking to an old family friend that he comes to realise that his imaginary sibling had a real predecessor: a half-brother whose death in the concentration camps is part of a buried family secret that he was intended never to unearth.

The official film website is here.

Watch the sub-titled trailer below:

New Scandinavian crime titles for 2009

Apart from The Girl Who Played With Fire, what have we got to look forward to in the way of new titles from our favourite Scandinavian authors in 2009?

Well, I've started an amazon.co.uk list which has the titles listed so far - here.

BBC to remake The Thirty-Nine Steps

From The Guardian:











One of the centrepieces of the BBC's Christmas schedule will be a feature-length adaptation of The Thirty-nine Steps, the spy thriller later turned into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, "reimagined" for the Jason Bourne generation.

The BBC is set to unveil its plans for the new version, which will star Spooks actor Rupert Penry-Jones, today before filming begins in Scotland next month.

An instant hit on its publication in 1915, John Buchan's novel features a restless adventurer, Richard Hannay, who meets a man who claims to be a spy. When he finds the man murdered in his flat, Hannay flees for Scotland, where he becomes entangled in a conspiracy which not only threatens his life but could lead to an invasion of Great Britain.

The BBC said the new version would be closer to the book than Hitchcock's 1935 film version starring Robert Donat.

"With this adaptation we wanted to stay faithful to the spirit and period of the book, but asked the writer, Lizzie [Mickery], to feel free to reimagine it for a modern audience more familiar with James Bond and Jason Bourne," said producer Lynn Horsford.

The Girl Who Played with Fire - mini extract

The second part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, will be out in January. Meanwhile the cover art is available along with a synopsis plus I have a brief extract lifted from a print copy of The Bookseller magazine from last November:

Extract: She lay for several minutes looking at the narrow strip of light above the door. Then she moved and tried to feel how tight the straps were. She could pull up her knees a bit, but the harness and the foot restraints grew taut immediately. She relaxed. She lay completely still, staring at nothing.

She waited. She fantasized about a gasoline can and a match.

She saw him drenched with gasoline. She could physically feel the box of matches in her hand. She shook it. It rattled. She opened the box and selected a match. She heard him say something but shut her ears and didn't listen to the words. She saw the expression on his face as she moved the match towards the striking surface. She heard the scraping sound of sulphur against it. It sounded like a drawn-out thunderclap. She saw the match burst into flame.

She smiled a hard smile and steeled herself.

That was the night she turned thirteen.

(caveats - any typing errors are my own and this was probably from the proof copy and may not be the final version.)

Synopsis: Lisbeth Salander is a wanted woman. Two Millennium journalists about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden are brutally murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her anywhere. Meanwhile, Mikael Blomkvist, editor-in-chief of Millennium, will not believe what he hears on the news. Knowing Salander to be fierce when fearful, he is desperate to get to her before she is cornered and alone. As he fits the pieces of the puzzle together, he comes up against some hardened criminals, including the chainsaw-wielding 'blond giant' - a fearsomely huge thug who can feel no pain. Digging deeper, Blomkvist also unearths some heart-wrenching facts about Salander's past life. Committed to psychiatric care aged 12, declared legally incompetent at 18, this is a messed-up young woman who is the product of an unjust and corrupt system. Yet Lisbeth is more avenging angel than helpless victim - descending on those that have hurt her with a righteous anger terrifying in its intensity and truly wonderful in its outcome.

and finally, do read the Euro Crime review of the first book in the trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Publishing Deals - White & Franklin

From Publisher's Lunch:

Jenny White's third book in the KAMIL PASHA historical mystery series, set in Istanbul in the 1890s, about Armenian terrorists striking at Ottoman institutions, to Amy Cherry at Norton, by Al Zuckerman at Writers House (World).

Ariana Franklin's MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH, Book 4, featuring a 12th-century CSI, to Rachel Kahan at Putnam and Laura Shin at Penguin Canada, for publication in Spring 2010, by Helen Heller at Helen Heller Agency.

Ariana Franklin's third Adelia book, Grave Goods, is out in March (in the US).

Hay-Haul

On Sunday I made one of my twice yearly trips to Hay on Wye and this is what I bought:

(If you click on the photo the titles become legible!)

The haul mostly comprises translated crime fiction from a while ago, a few books by Australian authors and some other odds and s*ds.

(Martin Edwards's blog is having an impact on my purchases :-))

Michael Gregorio at the ICI

The following event featuring Michael Gregorio is on 11 September at 6.30pm at the Italian Cultural Institute (London) and is free, but booking ahead is required:

The ICI presents the international bestsellers Critique of Criminal Reason and Days of Atonement (Faber & Faber), a series of historical mystery novels set in 19th century Prussia where the philosopher Immanuel Kant plays a substantial role.

Maxim Jakubowski, writer, journalist and expert of noir fiction, makes a welcome return to the ICI to introduce Daniela De Gregorio and Michael Jacob, the two halves of the author Michael Gregorio.

The authors will illustrate the challenge of writing as a couple, especially when one is a fiery Italian and the other a diehard Englishman.

Euro Crime reviewer Norman Price said of Days of Atonement: "When you are able to read a 444 page book in only a couple of days it is usually a sign of an engrossing and enjoyable read, and this is the case with DAYS OF ATONEMENT. This novel is all about immersing the reader in the historical period, and keeping you guessing till the end with its many red herrings."

New Reviews: George, Indridason, Leon, Medieval Murderers, Nesser, Taylor

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

Latest Reviews:

Kerrie Smith reviews honorary Brit, Elizabeth George's Careless in Red which she says is long but necessarily so;

Maxine Clarke reviews The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason which is now out in paperback, calling it "a satisfying mystery novel by a superb author";

Norman Price reviews honorary European, Donna Leon's The Girl of His Dreams and finds it a return to form;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest from The Medieval Murderers (who have expanded to include C J Sansom) - The Lost Prophecies - finding it the best of the three he's read so far;

I review the first in the Van Veeteren series by Hakan Nesser - The Mind's Eye - which is a fun, quick and slightly bizarre read

and Geoff Jones reviews The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor which he finds lacking in the crime department.

Current Competition:

Win a copy of Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes*

* restrictions apply (ends 31 August)

News page update

The Euro Crime website News page has now been updated. The Guardian reviewers have been busy...