OT: Yes it's Caturday

Having posted photos of the whipper-snapper Foxy, two next month, I thought I'd include a couple of today's snaps of Nimes who'll be eighteen in July. He went to the vets yesterday as he's recently started treatment for early stage kidney failure. The vet was very pleased with him and said he didn't look his age. So hopefully he'll be around for another year or two.

OT: Cute cat picture alert

I think my cat Foxy spends as much time on the pc as I do...though I usually have my eyes open.




These were taken a few minutes ago. He was looking even cuter before I got my camera. You can see the scratch on his nose sustained in an ongoing battle with the tabby two doors up, over territory.

Paper Moon Competition..closing soon

The current competition (open to UK & Europe) will end at midnight tomorrow, so don't delay.

The prize is a copy of The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri.

Why should you read it? See the reviews by Norman, Michelle and Maxine.

Need more convincing? Read Norman's Camilleri Appreciation.

and finally, what does the translator Stephen Sartarelli think about translating Camilleri's books?

Ten Books to Talk About

The Spread the Word list has been narrowed down from 50 to 10 titles. From the website:

These top ten contemporary books with word-of-mouth appeal have reached the short list in a search to find the best book to talk about this year.

Votes cast here over the next month will decide one winning book, The Book to Talk About, to be announced on World Book Day 2009, Thursday 5th March.

The ten includes Euro Crime favourite - Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis and Natasha Mostert's Season of the Witch.

See the whole list here.

Euro Crime Favourites of 2008 (part 2)

A couple of weeks ago I listed the Euro Crime reviewers' favourite reads of 2008 by title and by author. The winner of the "favourite title" was:

4 votes:
Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I've now put together the full details of which titles each of the fifteen contributors chose as their five favourite euro crime reads of 2008. I've also included any additional comments the reviewers' made about their choices and their runners-up.

The information can be found via the reviews page (which also has links to 2005, 2006 and 2007 choices) or click directly here.

My favourite audio books of 2008, can be found here.

Anne Perry - Publishing Deal

Yes, another publishing deal..No surprises with this one. From Publisher's Lunch:

Mystery/Crime
Anne Perry's Christmas Novella #8, featuring characters from her two Victorian era mystery series, to Susanna Porter at Ballantine, in a very nice deal, for publication in Holiday 2010, by Donald Maass of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, on behalf of Meg Davis at MBA Literary Agents (NA).

Anne Perry's bibliography can be found here.

Alan Glynn - Publishing Deal

This one's from BookBrunch:

To Angus Cargill at Faber, Alan Glynn's debut thriller WINTERLAND (November 2009), which has received advance praise from John Connolly and others. Cargill describes it as "an exceptional novel about widespread corruption, from government to street level, in modern day Dublin . . . Winterland seems set to mark Alan Glynn as the first literary chronicler of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland". Cargill bought the book with a pre-emptive bid through St Martin's Press.

S J Parris - Publishing Deal

I've been given some old Bookseller magazines so there may be a few slightly out of date bits of news appearing over the next couple of days! From The Bookseller (online):

Observer critic Stephanie Merritt, who has published two novels with Faber and a memoir on depression with Ebury, is reinventing herself as a writer of historical thrillers.

Julia Wisdom at HarperCollins has acquired a trilogy set in the 16th century by Merritt writing as S J Parris. The first volume, Heresy, will be published in spring 2010. Wisdom bought UK and Commonwealth rights in "a big six-figure deal" from Jonny Geller of Curtis Brown at auction, with Ebury and Simon & Schuster the underbidders.

Heresy stars renegade Italian monk Giordano Bruno, based on a real-life figure, who has heretical ideas about the universe and escapes to England to work undercover for Sir Francis Walsingham. When attending a debate in Oxford, a series of murders take place which Bruno must solve. Wisdom, who bought the book on a 200-page partial manuscript, described it as "a really vividly painted picture of the time and place", being pitched to the C J Sansom market.

US rights have gone to Doubleday for a "high six-figure" deal at auction, via Jennifer Joel of ICM.

Lindsey Davis - Publishing Deal

Lindsey Davis's next book (after February's Alexandria) is a (temporary) departure from her Falco series according to Book Brunch:

To Oliver Johnson at Century, REBELS AND TRAITORS (September 2009) by Lindsey Davis, a departure from the author's Falco Roman mysteries. The novel tells the story of Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, on opposite sides of the Parliamentarian/Royalist divide, but fated to be brought together by adversity, loss and mutual attraction. Johnson describes it as "an absolute epic masterpiece of inspired story telling, poignant and convincing characterisation and razor sharp historical realism: in short, everything she has achieved over 20 years with her Roman books, but on a larger scale". Davis's next Falco novel, Nemesis, will appear in June 2010. Century has UK and Commonwealth rights in Rebels and Traitors through Heather Jeeves.

Jar City on DVD (R2)

It's finally here. The DVD of Jar City, based on Arnaldur Indridason's book of the same (translated English) name, was released yesterday. It's out of stock at amazon.co.uk but they have a good price of £10.98.

















DVD blurb: It looks like nothing ever happens in Iceland and when a seemingly innocuous old man is brutally killed, the news is in someway amplified. Detective Erlendur Sveisson, fifty and living a life plagued by various forms of addiction, is appointed the apparently incomprehensible case. During his investigations of the murder, Erlendur discovers that the victim was anything but an innocent pensioner, his past filled with rape and violence. These findings lead Erlendur to connect the assassination to other unsolved homicides, revealing an unsettling and gory picture that spreads virtually over the entire country. An austere yet powerful and gripping detective story, Jar City has been very well received by demanding American audiences. Perfectly crafted as a suspense-generating machine, what really makes Jar City a unique film in its genre is the effective balance between its vivid and somewhat physical images, and its cerebral, nearly philosophical narrative mood.

The Metro's review is here and the Crime Scraps review is here.

NB. Jar City became Tainted Blood when released in paperback.

Balancing the reviews/Simon Mayo's book programme

When I'm putting together the weekly reviews, I try and get an equal balance of books by male and female authors. There's a strong feeling amongst female writers (and is probably supported by empirical data) that they do not get reviewed as much as men, at least in the mainstream press. Lizzie Hayes along with a couple of female crime writers set up Mystery Women over eleven years ago to promote female writers (a la Sisters in Crime in the US).

I've only been listening to Simon Mayo's Book Review Programme podcast for three weeks, so maybe this isn't a fair sample, but the authors whose books were reviewed, were as follows:

Week 1: Martin Davies and Joanna Trollope
Week 2: Nicolo Ammaniti and M R Hall
Week 3: Nick Brownlee and Stephen Leather

As well as Simon and the featured authors, there are normally three reviewers. Weeks 1 and 3 had one female reviewer. So that's 1 out of 6 books by female authors and 2 out of 9 female reviewers. Perhaps this week there will be two books by female writers and a panel of female reviewers...

New Reviews; M R Hall, Roberta Kray, Preston & Spezi, Roz Southey

There's a faint theme of 'true crime' about this week's reviews which include: a fiction book written by Roberta Kray and a true crime book about 'The Monster of Florence'...

The following reviews have been added to the review archive over on the main Euro Crime website:

New Reviews:

Maxine Clarke praises highly the debut novel from M R Hall The Coroner which is the first in a several book series starring Jenny Cooper, Coroner and prescription drug addict;

Amanda Brown reviews The Lost by Roberta Kray which has an authenticity about it;

Michelle Peckham reviews the true crime book about the investigation into The Monster of Florence written by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi and the bizarre tack the police took

and Terry Halligan reviews the unusual sounding historical mystery by Roz Southey - Chords and Discords.

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

The competition is back - go here to see how you can win a copy of The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri.

Books about European Crime Fiction

One of the many knowledgeable commenters on the blog, Simon Clarke, has alerted me to a series of books about European crime fiction being published by the University of Wales. First up is:

French Crime Fiction
This first volume in the European crime fictions series acts as an introduction to crime writing in French. It presents the development of crime fiction in French cultures from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day and explores the distinctive features of a French-language tradition. Such discussion will be grounded in the study of novels by selected French-speaking writers, some of whom have an established international reputation, such as Georges Simenon, whilst others may be relatively unknown, such as Léo Malet.

Each chapter will examine a specific period, movement or group of writers, as well as engaging with broader debates over the contribution crime fiction makes more generally to contemporary French and European culture. All extracts in French will be translated into English. The book is written in an accessible style without assuming previous knowledge of crime fiction novels and their development in France, thus the title will appeal to undergraduates and also to the general, informed reader of crime fiction.

(This is due to be published in April 2009, £75 for a hardback edition.)

This is to be followed by Italian Crime Fiction:
This book constitutes an introduction to crime writing in Italian from its first development in the 1930s to the present day. It explores the distinctive features of the Italian tradition, such as the close links with the American and French tradition and the social commentary which characterises much crime fiction in Italian in the post-war period. This study focuses on novels by selected Italian writers, some of whom have an established international reputation, such as Leonardo Sciascia and Umberto Eco, whilst others may be relatively unknown, such as the new generation of crime writers of the Bologna school, and analyses the contribution crime fiction makes more generally to contemporary Italian and European culture. The book will be written in an accessible style aimed at undergraduates and does not assume any previous knowledge of Italian Crime Fiction. And will also appeal to the general, informed reader. All extracts in Italian will be translated into English.
(Currently listed on amazon for March 2010)

And hopefully appearing this year: Criminal Scandinavia: Nordic Crime Fiction. The information from Simon is that: "It's edited by Andrew Nestingen and Paula Arvas and will contain some great essays on contemporary Scandinavian writers such as Mankell, Marklund, Nesser, Holt, Indridason while also remembering the work of Sjowall and Wahloo".

The website does list a paperback version for the Italian volume at a more modest £16.99 but if your library has no plans to stock these books then an Inter-Library Loan is always worth a go. The fee is currently £2.50, refundable if the book is unobtainable..

Guardian article on Scandinavian crime fiction

Many thanks to Simon Clarke for pointing me towards this article in today's Guardian. The interest in Scandinavian crime fiction continues and increases. The article concludes that we might have more authors to come:

But the bottom line is that Scandinavian crime fiction has risen above cult status because much of it is a lot better than anything else on offer, and the person who has done most to introduce it into this country is publisher Christopher MacLehose. As head of the Harvill imprint, he bought both the translation rights of Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow and the Wallander series, and latterly picked up Larsson's Millennium trilogy - the third comes out later this year - for his new imprint, MacLehose Press.

Not that MacLehose had any great plans to be at the vanguard of the Nordic revolution when he started out. "I bought Miss Smilla simply because I thought it was a great book," he says, "and I remember saying to a colleague at the time that, if nothing else, we were doing our bit for Danish literature. I was as surprised as anyone when it went on to sell millions worldwide."

With Scandinavian crime now this year's must-have for every genre publisher, the days of picking up unnoticed gems on the cheap are long gone. Scandinavian authors may not get the advances of a Grisham or a Connelly, but their agents are learning to be a little more greedy. Even so, things still nearly get missed.

"Larsson's trilogy had been rejected by seven or eight British publishers by the time it got to me, I'm pleased to say," MacLehose smiles. "I think a lot of publishers just fell for the old orthodoxy, born of Orion's experience that it took six books to successfully launch Ian Rankin, that you can't sell a dead foreign author who only wrote three books. Hopefully, that's another myth that's dead in the water."

But if there's one thing you can count on it's publishers following a trend, so you can be sure of hearing about a great many more Scandinavian thriller writers over the next couple of years. So who should we watch out for? "Kristian Lundberg and Jens Lapidus are two of the best crime writers who are as yet untranslated," says Maria Edstrom, Swedish literary critic. "By and large, though, the really good writers are already in print in the UK. But we still have a whole bunch of not very good thriller writers so I dare say they are heading your way".

Read the whole article, here.

Scandinavian authors that have already been translated can be found, here.

OT: Narrators for the next set of Doctor Who Audio Books

The next three Doctor Who (tenth Doctor) audio books are released on 12th March. The narrators are as follows...

Debbie Chazen will narrate Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski
Russell Tovey will narrate The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham
David Troughton will narrate Ghosts of India by Mark Morris




My amazon list of Doctor Who related audio books, published since 2008, can be found here.

New (Whole Story) Audio Books for January

Whole Story Audio Books produce unabridged audio books on CD. A new feature of their website is that you can now upload your own review of an audio book.

The new Euro Crime titles for January are:

The Blood Detective by Dan Waddell
The Spies of Warsaw by Alan Furst Review

A Couple of Historical Crime Series

One of the perks of working in a public library is seeing new books and being reminded of older books. I won a proof of The Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn a couple of years ago. I planned to read it and was looking forward to it, however the months went by and it didn't get read. Then just recently my memory was jogged by a borrower returning the audio book version of it. I immediately checked it out and spent last week listening to it. It's not a crime novel but rather is about Katherine Parr and her best friend Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk and Thomas Seymour.

I'm now re-inspired to try the series written by Karen Harper which features a young Princess Elizabeth/Elizabeth I. I bought the first one in the series The Poyson Garden in 2000. (It's no reflection on the quality of a book if it's languished in my four digit tbr for a few years...)
There are currently nine books in this series.



A historical crime series I have read and enjoyed is the charming Beau Brummell series by Rosemary Stevens which also stars a delightful (and clever) Siamese cat. Unfortunately there are only four in this series despite it garnering many awards.

Publishing Deal - Lin Anderson

From BookBrunch:

To Suzie Doore at Hodder, a further two crime novels by Lin Anderson featuring Glasgow-based forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod. In THE REBORN (2010), the body of a teenager is found with her uterus cut open and a full term foetus removed; MacLeod’s investigations lead to the maker of reborns, or lifelike baby dolls. A further novel, the eighth in the series, will appear in 2011. Hodder has world rights through Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates.

Lin Anderson's Euro Crime bibliography with reviews of the Rhona MacLeod series, can be found here.

A few publishing deals...

From today's Publisher's Lunch:

Winner of the 2008 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel competition IN THE SHADOW OF GOTHAM Stefanie Pintoff's next two Detective Ziele historical mysteries, set in early twentieth century New York City, to Kelley Ragland at Minotaur, by David Hale Smith at DHS Literary (World).

William Boyd's ORDINARY THUNDERSTORMS, in which a man wrongly accused of murder sheds his identity and goes underground in contemporary London, to Gillian Blake at Harper, by Amanda Urban at ICM (US).

Thomas E. Kennedy's IN THE COMPANY OF ANGELS, one of four books comprising his Copenhagen Quartet set in different seasons in the Danish capital city, this one set in summer, focusing on two damaged characters struggling to heal and regain normalcy, to Anton Mueller at Bloomsbury, for publication in Winter 2010, followed by a second novel from the quarter in Winter 2011, by Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber Associates (US; UK).

Updates to the Euro Crime Website

The following changes have been made today to the Euro Crime website:

The summary page of Authors' personal websites now has 728 links on it.

The New Releases pages (by author or by date) have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1370 authors (7150 titles with links to 1421 reviews). I've added new bibliographies for: Maureen Ash, Alex Auswaks, Noah Charney, Mary-Jane Deeb, Jef Geeraerts, J M Gregson, Steven Hague, Karen Harper, Graham Hastings, Graham Ison, Roderic Jeffries, Rose Melikan, Martin Millar, Charles O'Brien, I J Parker, Jeffrey Siger, Frank Smith, Domenica Starnone, Rosemary Stevens and Rebecca Stott.

Also in Bibliographies I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Niccolo Ammaniti, Tessa Barclay, Colin Bateman, Richard Blake, Colin Cotterill, Karin Fossum, Gillian Galbraith, Susanna Gregory, Cora Harrison, Sam Hayes, Reginald Hill, Arnaldur Indridason, Hans-Werner Kettenbach, Bernard Knight, Deryn Lake, Val McDermid, Adrian McKinty, Denise Mina, Saskia Noort, Hilary Norman, Malcolm Pryce, Craig Russell, Alan Rustage, Kate Sedley, Chris Simms, Peter Tremayne and Elizabeth Wilson.

(Bibliography pages list an author's books in series order and contains details of the author's personal website (where available) and links to any reviews that have been written by Euro Crime or Reviewing the Evidence).