Scott & Bailey - on tv & in print

The successful ITV series Scott & Bailey starring Suranne Jones and Lesley Sharp, returns with a new series of eight episodes, starting (I believe) on Monday 12th March on ITV1.

A month later, on 12 April, Cath Staincliffe's prequel to series one, Dead to Me, is published by Corgi.


Official blurb:

A prequel to the hit TV series Scott and Bailey, and a chillingly authentic story of murder and hunting killers on the mean streets of Manchester

A daughter's death

A teenage girl is found, brutally murdered in her squalid flat.

A mother's love

Her mother is devastated. She gave her child up to the care system, only to lose her again, and is convinced that the drug-pusher boyfriend is to blame.

Two ordinary women, one extraordinary job

DC Rachel Bailey has dragged herself up from a deprived childhood and joined the Manchester Police. Rachel's boss thinks her new recruit has bags of raw talent but straight-laced DC Janet Scott, her reluctant partner, has doubts.

Together Scott and Bailey must hunt a killer, but a life fighting crime can be no life at all...

Cath Staincliffe is no stranger to tv work as she is the creator of the hugely successful Blue Murder series and also novelised two of the episodes.

Inspector Montalbano's fourth is his second

The next Inspector Montalbano episode, at 9pm on 3 March, is another new to BBC4 one: The Terracotta Dog and is based on the second book in Camilleri's series. The previous three episodes were based on the third, fourth and first books respectively

A criminal turned state witness informs Montalbano of an arms stash in a cave just outside Vigata. Also uncovered in the cave is a secret chamber where the bodies of two lovers, killed sometime in the 1940s, were buried in a bizarre ritual. An intrigued Montalbano must challenge the Mafia and deal with the arms cache before he can investigate this second find.

Review: Precious and the Monkeys by Alexander McCall Smith

Precious and the Monkeys by Alexander McCall Smith and illustrated by Iain McIntosh (Hardback, 73 pages, July 2011, Polygon, An Imprint of Birlinn Limited, ISBN: 1846972043)

Precious and the Monkeys was first published in the Scottish language as Precious and the Puggies
and I have to confess that, even though it's a children's book, I couldn't make head nor tale of it so I was very pleased when this English language version came out.

Precious and the Monkeys reveals how Precious (later Mma) Ramotse was inspired to become a detective and how the name of her business was devised, but it mainly details her first case as a young girl.

Still unsure how to pronounce Ramotswe? From Chapter One:

"That is an African name, and is not as hard to say as it looks. You just say RAM and then you say OTS (like lots without the l) and the you finish it off by saying WE. That's it."

The crime Precious has to investigate is who is stealing food from her classmates at school? Fingers are pointed at one of her fellow pupils but Precious insists that's there's no proof and that you really mustn't accuse someone without hard facts. Showing the kindly ways, readers of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series are familiar with, she befriends the suspect and the solution is revealed and the culprit caught (though the cover and title do rather give it away).

The story, however, isn't a whodunnit but a morality tale, told by an avuncular narrator, with the hope of encouraging its young readers to behave considerately and thoughtfully. It is utterly charming and the illustrations are beautiful. A delightful book which is over all too soon.

This will be published in the US as The Great Cake Mystery: Precious Ramotswe's Very First Case, on 3 April.

New Reviews: Akunin, Brophy, Craig, Ellis, Forshaw, Hannah, Harper, Mallo, Robinson

Win 3 Richard Nottingham mysteries by Chris Nickson (UK only) closes 29 February.

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Laura Root reviews the tenth (and final?) Erast Fandorin adventure from Boris Akunin, and translated by Andrew Bromfield: The Diamond Chariot;

Lynn Harvey reviews Kevin Brophy's The Berlin Crossing which is heavier on the love story than the spy story apparently;

Terry Halligan reviews the second in the John Carlyle series from James Craig: Never Apologise, Never Explain;

Lizzie Hayes reviews the newest Wesley Peterson/Neil Watson mystery from Kate Ellis: The Cadaver Game;

Maxine Clarke reviews Barry Forshaw's guide to Scandinavian crime fiction: Death in a Cold Climate;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Kind of Cruel the seventh to feature her detectives Waterhouse and Zailer;

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Harper's Secrets of the Dead, calling it "another excellent book";

I review Ernesto Mallo's follow-up to the CWA International Dagger Shortlisted Needle in a Haystack: Sweet Money, tr. Katherine Silver set in 1980s Buenos Aires

and Mark Bailey wants more standalones from Peter Robinson after reading Before the Poison.

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 Kate Ellis, Claire McGowan, Peter Robinson and Robert Wilson have been added to these pages this week.

Red-Headed League

Is the cover-designer of the Young Adult mystery, Perception a fan of Spiral's Audrey Fleurot?

TV News: The Fall

This one passed me by earlier this month, a new crime drama, to be filmed in Belfast, called The Fall and starring Gillian Anderson, has been announced by the BBC. Filming starts in March and it will be shown on BBC2

From the BBC's Press Office:

The Fall is a gripping psychological thriller that forensically examines the lives of two hunters. One is a serial killer who stalks his victims at random in and around Belfast and the other is a talented female Detective Superintendent on secondment from the MET who is brought in to catch him.

Produced by Artists Studio and written by Allan Cubitt (The Runaway, Murphy’s Law, Prime Suspect), the five episodes will follow the police investigation uncovering the intricate story of the lives entangled by a series of murders – both the killer's and the victims’ families.

Gillian Anderson stars as DSI Gibson, who arrives to conduct a 28 day review at a Belfast station where the police are getting nowhere on a high profile murder case.

Detective Inspector Huss - reissued

To coincide (sort of) with the release of the next Inspector Huss book by Helene Tursten in English: Night Rounds (the second in the series which is released in the UK next month), the first book has just been reissued.

Simply titled Detective Inspector Huss, when Maxine reviewed the original publication she wrote of it: "this book is as near to perfection as you can get in this genre". Read her whole review here.

I feel the cover has improved enormously!

Headhunters - Trailer

Jo Nesbo's standalone novel, Headhunters, translated by Don Bartlett has been made into a film which will be released in the UK on 6 April.

Included below is the official UK trailer.

The paperback release (featured left) has a film-tie in cover and is published on 29 March.

A review of the book should soon be up on Euro Crime but here is Euro Crime reviewer Maxine's excellent review at Petrona.

The Silence - DVD Release

The Silence, based on Jan Costin Wagner's book Silence, was released on DVD yesterday in the UK. I am very intrigued to watch this to compare it to the book. The action has been switched to Germany from Finland and from the reviews the crime that opens the book is shown in a more explicit manner.

Euro Crime reviews of the book are here (me) and here (Mark).

Official blurb: 2 missing girls. Same place. Same time. 23 years apart. History repeats itself in this knife-edged thriller, which has been described as the natural successor to The Killing.

An ageing detective comes out of retirement in the hope of solving a missing girl case, which is believed to be connected to an unsolved mystery that happened 23 years ago. Over the long hot summer days, tensions start to reach breaking point as our troubled detective closes in on the deeply methodical serial killer.

A striking debut, The Silence follows on from European crime thrillers such as The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Wallander as it delves into the psyche of detectives and criminals to deliver a chilling story of murder and betrayal.

Inspector Montalbano's First Case?

The next Inspector Montalbano episode, at 9pm on 25 February, is another new to BBC4 one: The Shape of Water and is based on the first book in the series, in which Salvo meets Ingrid. The previous two episodes were based on the third and fourth books respectively

Mr Luparello, a renowned local engineer and leading political figure, is found dead in a car at a notorious prostitution spot on the outskirts of Vigata. The coroner rules that he died of a heart attack following an amorous encounter. Fending off pressure from prominent ecclesiastical figures who wish to keep the case under wraps and navigating the intricacies of local party politics, Montalbano goes about making sense of the available evidence, including the incongruous discovery of an expensive necklace found at the site of the murder.

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.

Film News: ID: A & The Woman in the Fifth

Two films of an Euro-Crime interest are released today in the UK. ID: A a Danish film and The Woman in the Fifth, set in Paris and starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

ID: A, the synopsis is from The Danish Cultural Institute:

From the producers of Melancholia and directed by Christian E. Christiansen, the Danish film ID:A will be screened in the London cinema Curzon Soho from 17 to 19 February.

The film ID:A is about Aliena, who wakes up in a river in France with a bag with 2 million euros, a scar across her abdomen and no memory. Slowly traces begin to appear about the past and Aliena learns that her past life was more complicated than she first thought.

The cast: Tuva Novotny, Carsten Bjørnlund and Flemming Enevold. You may know the latter two from the Danish drama The Killing 2, where they play Major Christian Søgaard and Colonel Torsten Jarnvig, respectively.

Trailer




The Woman in The Fifth: American writer Tom Ricks comes to Paris desperate to put his life together again and win back the love of his estranged wife and daughter.

When things don't go according to plan, he ends up in a shady hotel in the suburbs, having to work as a night guard to make ends meet.

Then Margit, a beautiful, mysterious stranger walks into his life and things start looking up. Their passionate and intense relationship triggers a string of inexplicable events... as if an obscure power was taking control of his life.

Based on the novel by Douglas Kennedy.


Trailer

Publishing Deal - Stuart Neville

I received a press release last night from Harvill Secker regarding Stuart Neville, who has received glowing reviews from Euro Crime's reviewers:

Harvill Secker has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for two new Jack Lennon novels by the Belfast crime writer Stuart Neville, in a deal with Caspian Dennis of Abner Stein. The two new novels are to be published January 2014 and January 2015 and will be a great asset to Harvill Secker’s prestigious crime list which features authors such as Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankell.

Stuart Neville’s debut The Twelve was published to critical acclaim in 2009 and went on to win the LA Times Book Prize in its category. Collusion and Stolen Souls have followed closely in its tracks, each garnering increasingly widespread praise.

In 2013 Harvill Secker will publish Ratlines, an exciting standalone thriller following the trail of Nazis in Ireland in the wake of World War II.

This will be followed by two newly acquired novels featuring Detective Inspector Jack Lennon, the protagonist of Stolen Souls, which has just been published to great acclaim. In the first of these new novels, Jack is struggling to keep his own life together but is dragged into a case of two brothers who, as children, committed a horrific murder and are now back on the streets. The second will feature a highly dangerous character from Jack’s past.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries

Many years ago, in preparation for a holiday in Australia I managed to get hold of Kerry Greenwood's Cocaine Blues (apa Murder by Misadventure) which is the first in a long running series featuring 1920s flapper and private detective Phryne Fisher set in Melbourne. I picked up a few more of the series whilst in Australia and subsequently bought a few more online, when the pound:Australian dollar ratio was more favourable! ThouAgh Orion have published some of the later books, I wish that a UK publisher such as Allison & Busby Robinson would take the whole series on - as they have with Carola Dunn's, also 1920s set, Daisy Dalrymple series. Both series incidentally have the most beautiful covers.

A TV series has been made of the Phryne Fisher books, Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries which begins in Australia on Friday, February 24, at 8.30pm on ABC1. We in the UK can only hope it gets picked up here.

TV tie-in Kindle editions are available on UK Kindle with Cocaine Blues being a bargain £1.32 at the moment and other in the series are around a fiver. (I haven't been able to check for epub availability as the Kobo site was down).

Phyrne is played by Essie Davies (and the series also stars Miriam Margolyes):

The opulent 13-part series, produced by Fiona Eagger and Deb Cox, is based on Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher crime novels, set in and around Melbourne during the late 1920s. Davis read most of Greenwood's 18 Phryne adventures not long after she was approached to audition. She immediately clicked with a heroine who is more Mata Hari than Miss Marple.

...read more about the series, listen to a review and watch a clip from the show at The Age.

Film News: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

The Turkish film, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia has its UK release on 16 March according to UK Film dates. There appears to be the odd showing in the UK before then. I can't find a very detailed synopsis (other than: "A group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes") so here is a sample from the TimeOut review:

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia is a crime movie, but not as you know it, and as well as asking us to puzzle together fragments of a murder case, it also offers rich, and sometimes comic, ruminations on city, small-town and village attitudes, on cynical versus more feeling attitudes to life, on our ability to separate the personal and the professional and on the banalities that arises even in extreme, unusual situations. It might be about a murder, but it’s also about the passing of time (and, in a subtly different way, passing the time), and to stress both, Ceylan asks that we share nearly three hours with him and his film.

We follow a group of 12 men in three vehicles – policemen, soldiers, two suspects, a doctor, a prosecutor and two men with shovels – as they trawl the countryside at night looking for a buried body, trying and failing several times before they make some progress. One minute they’re looking for freshly dug earth, the next they’re discussing the merits of cheese or the tell-tale signs of prostate cancer. With two prisoners in tow, they make a pit-stop at a village where we get a naturalistic portrait of everyday relations and where small, endearing differences emerge between the town folk of the investigation and their rural hosts. Back on the road, Ceylan moves around characters, and sometimes leaves them behind altogether for some staggering landscape shots. Night becomes dawn, and only when it’s morning do they return to town and the final chapter of the film unfolds in a police station and doctor’s surgery.

Possible UK posters:

OT: Happy Birthday Foxy

The kitten that we found in May 2007, which would turn into the beautiful bruiser that is Foxy, was roughly 3 months old so we allocated a nominal birthday of 14 February, making him 5 today. Appropriately he is a sweetheart and possibly the most characterful cat we've had (so far?). Here he is in the snow a few days ago...

Getting Access to Audiobooks

As well as my print reading, I nearly always have an audiobook on the go. I have a longish commute to work and sometimes it's too busy/noisy or I'm too tired to read with my eyes. Plus I walk a lot and love to listen as I exercise. I often try authors that I might not get round to reading conventionally. I often stick to audiobooks for a series if the narrator is exceptional and I am in a dilemma regarding the latest Stella Rimington, Rip Tide, which is not narrated by Maggie Mash, unlike the previous five. What to do? Try the new narrator or switch to reading the book and "hear" Maggie Mash's narration as I read?

I love audiobooks and so if you want to try them for yourselves, here's how to get one...

The cheapest way is to join your local library. I'll use my local libraries as examples - I work for Birmingham Libraries (B) but live in Worcestershire (W) so I have two cards.

Did you know that you can join any library in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for free without being a local resident? Back in 2009, the policy changed:

The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) said members of the public simply need to show their existing library card or proof of address to join or use a library they are visiting.

The scheme applies to public libraries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scotland is not part of the UK Society of Chief Librarians, although some Scottish authorities are considering joining the scheme.

According to the society, customers will be able to borrow books from any library and, in some cases, use other services such as DVD rental and online resources.

You can normally apply online for a library card (as well as at the library itself) but depending on the library service, you may have to either collect it or pop in to activate it. Birmingham posts the card to the address given by the online joiner.

Having got your library card, you then have access to the libraries audiobook collection. To hire an audiobook, there's usually a fee (90p B, £1 W). If you want a specific title, then if it's available in that library service, then there will usually be a reservation fee (free B, 60p W). If the item can't be sourced locally then you have the option of an Inter Library Loan which is £3, plus the hire charge.

As well as the physical audiobook collection, many libraries are supplying an e-audiobook option. This means you can download audiobooks for free from home. Birmingham has 700 titles available. Worcestershire doesn't offer this service yet.

However be aware that if you are not a local resident, there may be restrictions on what you can do with your card eg, this from Surrey County Council's website:

Do I have to live in Surrey to sign up for this service?
Overdrive, the US based company who supplies our eBook and eAudio service, has requested that access is limited to Surrey residents only. This decision has been made as a result of UK and US publishers concerns surrounding rights and access issues. However, there are several other UK library authorities offering eBooks access, so if you live outside Surrey we suggest you check with your local council to see if they offer this service.

If you cannot access a library, prefer a more permanent copy of the book or cannot get the books you want easily then audible.co.uk (or equivalent), is probably the next cheapest option. You buy the download, and packages start from £3.99 a month. I haven't used them myself and there may be alternative companies that I don't know about, equally good/bad.

Lastly, audiobooks can be bought from retailers such as Amazon and often these are not too expensive - comparable with a hardback price eg Camilla Lackberg's The Hidden Child is rrp £19.99. Audiobooks can also be bought direct from the providers, including AudioGo and Whole Story Audiobooks usually as a box of cds, though AudioGo offer MP3 downloads as well.

There are free audiobooks available, in my limited experience, these are usually read by non-professional narrators, of older books and the mp3 quality is not as good as it could be.

If you've not tried an audiobook before then I urge you to do so. My favourite combinations include Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May series narrated by Tim Goodman and Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Adjoa Andoh.

New UK paperbacks for February 2012

From The Bookseller's February Paperback Preview (in the 28th October edition), crime titles published in paperback this month include:

"Euro-Crime" Authors

1st February

Michael Ridpath's 66 Degrees North (1st)

2nd February

Simon Beckett's The Calling of the Grave
Gyles Brandreth's Oscar Wilde and the Vatican Murders
Andrew Martin's The Somme Stations
Leif G W Persson's Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End
Peter Robinson's Before the Poison
Tom Rob Smith's Agent 6

16th February

M C Beaton's Death of a Sweep
Carola Dunn's Gone West
David Jackson's Pariah
Quintin Jardine's Grievous Angel
Val McDermid's The Retribution
M J McGrath's White Heat
Henning Mankell 's The Troubled Man
Liza Marklund's Vanished (apa Paradise)
Denise Mina's The End of the Wasp Season
Craig Robertson's Snapshot

US Authors

Beverly Barton's Don't Cry (2nd)
Greg Iles' The Bone Tree (16th)
Katya Lief's Five Days to Die (2nd)
Peter Spiegelman's Thick as Thieves (2nd)
John Verdon's Shut Your Eyes Tight (16th)

Next Time on Montalbano

I'm somewhat behind with my euro-tv, I have all of Borgen still to watch plus Saturday's Montalbano (and ages old Wallander episodes - both Swedish versions) and crimeficreader reports that Those Who Kill will be on from 23 February...

The next Inspector Montalbano episode, at 9pm on 18 February, is another new to BBC4 one, The Voice of the Violin:

When the naked dead body of a young woman is found in a villa outside Vigata, Montalbano discovers that she had recently bought the villa and was in the process of restoring it using her wealthy husband's money. When the case is taken from Montalbano and given to rival inspector Panzacchi from nearby Montelusa, Panzacchi draws some easy conclusions and the investigation risks going badly off course. Will a proud Montalbano stick his neck out to regain control of the case or will he allow his incompetent colleagues to pin the murder on the wrong suspect?

The Potter's Field, the thirteenth in Andrea Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series will be published in the UK in April (it is already out in the US). The previous twelve novels are listed in order and all reviewed on Euro Crime.

New Reviews: Adams, Beckett, Cleeves, Eastland, Higashino, Kaaberbol & Friis, Leather, Rickman, Russell

As is vaguely customary, a 6 review week is followed by a 9 review week...making roughly a review a day.

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

Here are this week's 9 new reviews:

Lizzie Hayes reviews Jane A Adams's sixth Naomi Blake outing, Blood Ties;

Geoff Jones reviews Simon Beckett's fourth David Hunter novel, The Calling of the Grave, now out in paperback;

Maxine Clarke reviews the fifth in Ann Cleeves's "Vera" series, The Glass Room;

Lynn Harvey reviews the third in Sam Eastland's Inspector Pekkala series, Siberian Red;

Michelle Peckham reviews the paperback release of The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O Smith & Elye J Alexander;

I review The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis, tr. Lene Kaaberbol set in Copenhagen and which is the first in the Nina Borg series;

Terry Halligan reviews the third in the supernatural PI Jack Nightingale series from Stephen Leather Nightmare;

Rich Westwood reviews Phil Rickman's The Lamp of the Wicked which touches on some true-life crimes, and is the fifth in the Merrily Watkins series which is being issued in paperback by Atlantic Books;

and Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Russell's third book in the Lennox series, The Deep Dark Sleep, set in 1950s Glasgow.

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 Jane Adams, John Connolly, Sebastian Fitzek, Tony/Anthony Hays, Anne Holt, Fabrice Humbert, Susan Elia MacNeal, Danielle Ramsay and Simon Urban have been added to these pages this week.