Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
The Petrona Award 2017 - the Shortlist
Outstanding crime fiction from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden shortlisted for the 2017 Petrona Award
Six outstanding crime novels from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have made the shortlist for the 2017 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year, which is announced today.
They are:
THE EXILED by Kati Hiekkapelto tr. David Hackston (Orenda Books; Finland)
THE DYING DETECTIVE by Leif G.W. Persson tr. Neil Smith (Doubleday; Sweden)
THE BIRD TRIBUNAL by Agnes Ravatn tr. Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books, Norway)
WHY DID YOU LIE? by Yrsa Sigurđardóttir tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton, Iceland)
WHERE ROSES NEVER DIE by Gunnar Staalesen tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books, Norway)
THE WEDNESDAY CLUB by Kjell Westö tr. Neil Smith (MacLehose Press, Finland)
The winning title will be announced at the Gala Dinner on 20 May during the annual international crime fiction event CrimeFest, held in Bristol 18-21 May 2017.
The award is open to crime fiction in translation, either written by a Scandinavian author or set in Scandinavia and published in the UK in the previous calendar year.
The Petrona team would like to thank our sponsor, David Hicks, for his generous support of the 2017 Petrona Award.
The judges’ comments on the shortlist and the shortlisted titles:
“It was difficult to choose just six crime novels for the Petrona Award shortlist this year, given the number of truly excellent submissions from around the Scandinavian world. Our 2017 Petrona Award shortlist testifies to the extremely high quality of translated Scandi crime, with authors from Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden making expert use of police investigations, psychological thrillers, private eye novels and historical crime fiction both to entertain and to explore pertinent social, political and historical issues. We are extremely grateful to the translators for their skill and expertise in bringing us these outstanding examples of Scandinavian crime fiction.”
THE EXILED by Kati Hiekkapelto tr. David Hackston (Orenda Books; Finland)
Finnish police detective Anna Fekete returns to the Serbian village of her birth for a holiday, but is pulled into an investigation that throws up questions about her own father’s death decades earlier. As well as exploring the complexities of Fekete’s identity as a Hungarian Serb who has made her life in Finland, this accomplished novel looks with insight and compassion at the discrimination faced by Roma people, and the lot of refugees migrating through Europe.
THE DYING DETECTIVE by Leif G.W. Persson tr. Neil Smith (Doubleday; Sweden)
Lars Martin Johansson, a retired Swedish Police Chief, suffers a stroke after a lifetime of unhealthy excess. Frustrated by his physical limitations and slow recovery, he is drawn into investigating a cold case, the murder of nine-year-old Yasmine Ermegan in 1985. Expertly plotted and highly gripping, The Dying Detective features characters from a number of other crime novels by the author, but succeeds brilliantly as a standalone in its own right.
THE BIRD TRIBUNAL by Agnes Ravatn tr. Rosie Hedger (Orenda Books, Norway)
Former TV presenter Allis takes up the post of housekeeper and gardener at a house on a remote fjord. But her employer is not the old man she was expecting, and the whereabouts of his wife are tantalisingly unclear. Isolated from other villagers, Allis and Sigurd’s relationship becomes progressively more claustrophobic and tense. A haunting psychological thriller and study in obsession that is perfectly complemented by the author’s beautiful, spare prose.
WHY DID YOU LIE? by Yrsa Sigurđardóttir tr. Victoria Cribb (Hodder & Stoughton, Iceland)
Yrsa Sigurđardóttir is as adroit a manufacturer of suspense as any writer in the Nordic Noir genre, as this standalone thriller comprehensively proves. Why Did You Lie? skilfully interweaves the stories of a policewoman whose husband has committed suicide, a work group stranded by hostile weather on a remote lighthouse, and a family whose American guests go missing. A compelling exploration of guilt and retribution, which builds to a nerve-jangling finale.
WHERE ROSES NEVER DIE by Gunnar Staalesen tr. Don Bartlett (Orenda Books, Norway)
Grieving private detective Varg Veum is pushed to his limits when he takes on a cold case involving the disappearance of a small girl in 1977. As the legal expiry date for the crime draws near, Veum’s investigation uncovers intriguing suburban secrets. In what may well be the most accomplished novel in a remarkable series, the author continues to work in a traditional US-style genre, but with abrasive Scandi-crime social commentary very much in evidence.
THE WEDNESDAY CLUB by Kjell Westö tr. Neil Smith (MacLehose Press, Finland)
This multilayered novel tells the story of how a crime is triggered following the chance meeting of two people in a lawyer’s office. While the narrative can be seen as a tragic individual story, it also takes on larger historical dimensions as it unfolds. Set in Helsinki in 1938, on the eve of the Second World War, The Wednesday Club offers an insightful exploration into the legacy of the Finnish Civil War, and the rise of German and Finnish fascism in the present.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
The Petrona Award 2017 - Update
The Petrona Award team met recently to discuss the shortlist for the 2017 Award and the results of the discussion will be revealed tomorrow (30 March 2017).
The winner will be announced on 20 May 2017 at the Gala Dinner at CrimeFest in Bristol.
The winner will be announced on 20 May 2017 at the Gala Dinner at CrimeFest in Bristol.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Review: Kill Me Twice by Anna Smith
Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
It is always an immense pleasure to be sent the latest Rosie Gilmour book to review. I love the way this feisty journalist gets her teeth into things and brings people to justice. She cares about more than just the perfect story and because of this people trust her to help them when there is nowhere else to turn.
Her creator, Anna Smith, is an award-winning journalist herself and has worked in many places in the world over the course of her career. KILL ME TWICE is her seventh book to feature Rosie Gilmour.
This time Rosie is caught up in the murky world of heroin addiction as she fights to protect two people who are hiding so that the truth will come out. A stunning young model has thrown herself off the top of a building and the celeb world is in shock at her apparent suicide. Unbeknown to those with the most to hide, this “suicide” is witnessed by another tortured soul: Milly Chambers - a former politician’s wife - who also has plans to end her life that day. She hides unseen as the young woman is brought up onto the hotel roof, fights for her life and is thrown off the building. In terror Milly runs but it is not long before she needs Rosie’s help to stay safe from her husband and others who would wish her harm.
In previous books Rosie has put her own life on the line for her witnesses. It seems as if this book is no exception as she is given a beating or two and threatened for knowing too much. There is also the issue of the secret that connects the heroin addict with the model; a story that could send sales of her paper though the ceiling. Just as long as she survives to tell the tale!
Anna Smith writes nail-biting prose that will keep you up late. It is always impossible to guess the ending and you are never disappointed. If you like feisty female lead characters, then you are going to love Rosie Gilmour. KILL ME TWICE reads well as a stand-alone but is even better if you've read the others in the series first.
Highly Recommended.
Amanda Gillies, March 2017
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Review: Buried by Graham Masterton
Reviewed by Susan White.
(Read more of Susan's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
Set in Blarney, Cork, this thriller is the sixth in the series featuring Detective Superintendent Katie Maquire.
The story starts when a house renovation reveals the bodies of a family of four. When the skeletons are found to be from many decades previously, the police force consider it to be a lower priority than other more recent cases such as the smuggling and selling of imported cigarettes. However, memories run deep in the community and a possible political motive is put forward for the deaths - or executions - and revenge becomes a possibility.
The tax being lost from the sale of illegally imported goods, particularly cigarettes is bringing pressure on the police to find the distribution source and to stop it. Although local youths selling on the street are often caught, the police and the government want the person organising the scam stopped for good - a known criminal called Bobby Quilty. When one of her police officers is deliberately run down, Katie makes it her personal quest to bring Bobby Quilty to justice. His response is to kidnap Katie's ex-lover, John, and hold him to ransom against her turning a blind eye. Katie now has to plan how to bring Quilty to justice while finding John and rescuing him.
This book has scenes of quite graphic sex and a lot of violence which I found very disturbing and difficult to read. The story highlights the fact that old scores lie deep across both sides of the border and how sometimes old injustices are used by both sides of a continuing conflict.
I found the character of Katie very complex. On one hand she is shown as a strong role model for women in a man's world, overcoming everyday sexism and expectation of what a woman should be and do to achieve a very senior post. On the other hand she is portrayed as a frail woman who allows her emotion to override her good sense and this dichotomy really annoyed me at times.
This is the first book of the series I have read - it intrigued me enough to look out for others.
Susan White, March 2017
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
From my Inbox
A couple of pieces of news from recent emails:
1. From Publishers Lunch, deal news;
2. A press release from Harvill Secker re Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10:
1. From Publishers Lunch, deal news;
Julia Phillips' DISAPPEARING EARTH, about two sisters who go missing on a remote volcanic peninsula in Kamchatka, as clues to the crime lie in the lives -- and stories of violence and loss -- of twelve women in the girls' rural Russian community, to Knopf, in a two-book deal; UK/Commonwealth rights to Scribner UK.
And a new one from Eleanor Catton:
Booker winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton's third novel, BIRNAM WOOD, a psychological thriller, set in a remote area of New Zealand where scores of ultra-rich foreigners are building fortress-like homes in preparation for a coming, following the guerilla gardening outfit Birnam Wood, a ragtag group of leftists who move about the country cultivating other people's land, whose chance encounter with an American billionaire sparks a tragic sequence of events which questions how far each of us would go to ensure our own survival--and at what cost, to Farrar, Straus (US); McClelland & Stewart (Canada); Granta (UK/Australia); and Victoria University Press (NZ).
2. A press release from Harvill Secker re Ruth Ware's The Woman in Cabin 10:
CBS Films announced that it has secured the rights to bestselling author Ruth Ware’s latest psychological thriller THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10. Hillary Seitz (Eagle Eye, Insomnia) is set to adapt the novel for the screen with The Gotham Group (The Maze Runner) serving as producers.
Published by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Vintage, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 follows journalist Lo Blacklock who is given the travel magazine assignment of a lifetime: to spend a week on a boutique ultra-luxury cruise ship with only a handful of unimaginably wealthy travellers. Lo’s dreamlike experience could not be more perfect until late one night she witnesses an unspeakable act culminating with a woman being thrown overboard. The following morning all of the passengers remain accounted for and the ship sails on as if nothing has happened.
THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 is a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback in the UK, a New York Times bestseller for nineteen consecutive weeks, and it is currently enjoying its tenth week at the top of the Canadian bestseller chart. The rights to the book have been acquired by thirty international publishers.
The film rights to Ware’s debut psychological bestseller, In a Dark, Dark Wood, have already been optioned by New Line Cinema and the film is in development with Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Pacific Standard.
The hotly-anticipated new psychological thriller from Ruth Ware – The Lying Game – will be published by Harvill Secker in the UK on 15 June 2017.
Sunday, March 19, 2017
US Cozy Review: another triplet of reviewlets
Welcome to the latest entry in my irregular feature: US cozy review. My latest Cozy reads are more contemporary than in my last roundup:
In reading order:
1. Engaged in Death by Stephanie Blackmoore #1 Wedding Planner Mystery (2016)
I read this ages ages and accidentally missed it off my last roundup. This was my second favourite cozy read of last year. It introduces Mallory Shepard and her sister Rachel and is set in Port Quincy, Pennsylvania.
What I particularly liked about his book is that, usually we meet the heroine when she's moved to her new home to start afresh and then we get the back-story. In this book however we follow Mallory through her problems alongside her: cheating fiance, loss of job etc.
Mallory inherits a crumbling mansion which may have oil in its grounds. This could solve her money worries but she rejects the offer made by the oil company and next thing you know there's a dead man on the front lawn.
This has a complicated plot, cats and a hunky neighbour with a smart teenage daughter. What more could you ask for? I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Murder Wears White.
2. A Most Curious Murder by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli #1 A Little Library Mystery (2016)
I'm going to quote the official blurb on this one:
"Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, to nurse her bruised ego back to health after a bitter divorce. But the idyllic vision of her charming hometown crumbles when her mother's Little Library is destroyed.
The next-door neighbor, Zoe Zola, a little person and Lewis Carroll enthusiast, suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane, but when he's found dead in Zoe's fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny, however, believes Zoe is innocent, so the two women team up to find the true culprit, investigating the richest family in Bear Falls, interrogating a few odd townspeople, and delving into long, hidden transgressions--until Adam Cane isn't the only body in town, and they have an even bigger mystery to solve.
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's quaint and compelling series debut A Most Curious Murder will delight cozy mystery readers."
I liked this one enough to get the second, She Stopped for Death, but I did find the Alice in Wonderland theme a bit too hard for me to follow as I can't even remember if I read the original when I was a child (I'm that old sadly). I liked the idea of Jenny returning to her home and catching up with her former friends/enemies in different ways. And an old mystery is solved as well as the current one.
3. A Tine to Live, A Tine To Die by Edith Maxwell #1 Local Foods Mystery (2014)
Regular Euro Crime blog readers will know I'm always looking for vegetarian sleuths - so I thought I'd try this series. Our heroine Cam isn't veggie but she does grown her own food and is ethically conscious.
When programmer Cam loses her job she decides to take over her uncle's Organic Farm in Westbury, Massachusetts. She also inherits a farm-hand, Mike, whom she catches with a pesticide container. Mike is fired and worse than that, for him, is killed on Cam's farm with one of her farm tools. Cam tries to apply computer logic to solving the murder and in the meantime goes about her farm business and going to farmers' markets and suchlike.
I found this an interesting read as I was very taken with the details behind organic farming. I would say the pace is fairly steady but it does end with a bang! I've already bought the sequel, 'Til Dirt Do Us Part. The fifth book in the series, Mulch Ado about Murder, is out in May 2017.
In reading order:
1. Engaged in Death by Stephanie Blackmoore #1 Wedding Planner Mystery (2016)
What I particularly liked about his book is that, usually we meet the heroine when she's moved to her new home to start afresh and then we get the back-story. In this book however we follow Mallory through her problems alongside her: cheating fiance, loss of job etc.
Mallory inherits a crumbling mansion which may have oil in its grounds. This could solve her money worries but she rejects the offer made by the oil company and next thing you know there's a dead man on the front lawn.
This has a complicated plot, cats and a hunky neighbour with a smart teenage daughter. What more could you ask for? I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Murder Wears White.
2. A Most Curious Murder by Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli #1 A Little Library Mystery (2016)
"Jenny Weston moves home to Bear Falls, Michigan, to nurse her bruised ego back to health after a bitter divorce. But the idyllic vision of her charming hometown crumbles when her mother's Little Library is destroyed.
The next-door neighbor, Zoe Zola, a little person and Lewis Carroll enthusiast, suspects local curmudgeon Adam Cane, but when he's found dead in Zoe's fairy garden, all roads lead back to her. Jenny, however, believes Zoe is innocent, so the two women team up to find the true culprit, investigating the richest family in Bear Falls, interrogating a few odd townspeople, and delving into long, hidden transgressions--until Adam Cane isn't the only body in town, and they have an even bigger mystery to solve.
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli's quaint and compelling series debut A Most Curious Murder will delight cozy mystery readers."
I liked this one enough to get the second, She Stopped for Death, but I did find the Alice in Wonderland theme a bit too hard for me to follow as I can't even remember if I read the original when I was a child (I'm that old sadly). I liked the idea of Jenny returning to her home and catching up with her former friends/enemies in different ways. And an old mystery is solved as well as the current one.
3. A Tine to Live, A Tine To Die by Edith Maxwell #1 Local Foods Mystery (2014)
When programmer Cam loses her job she decides to take over her uncle's Organic Farm in Westbury, Massachusetts. She also inherits a farm-hand, Mike, whom she catches with a pesticide container. Mike is fired and worse than that, for him, is killed on Cam's farm with one of her farm tools. Cam tries to apply computer logic to solving the murder and in the meantime goes about her farm business and going to farmers' markets and suchlike.
I found this an interesting read as I was very taken with the details behind organic farming. I would say the pace is fairly steady but it does end with a bang! I've already bought the sequel, 'Til Dirt Do Us Part. The fifth book in the series, Mulch Ado about Murder, is out in May 2017.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
The Petrona Award 2017 - Submitted Entries
The Petrona Award team are meeting in a top secret location tomorrow to determine the shortlist for the Petrona Award 2017 for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. The list below is all the books that were submitted. The shortlist - usually six titles - will be announced shortly after the meeting, and the winner will be announced at the CrimeFest Gala Dinner in Bristol on 20 May 2017.
What do you think should be on the shortlist?
What do you think should be on the shortlist?
Stefan Ahnhem - Victim Without a Face tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles
Steinar Bragi - The Ice Lands tr. Lorenza Garcia
Christoffer Carlsson - The Falling Detective tr. Michael Gallagher
Torkil Damhaug - Death By Water tr. Robert Ferguson
Torkil Damhaug - Fireraiser tr. Robert Ferguson
Kjell Eriksson - Stone Coffin tr. Ebba Segerberg
Karin Fossum - Hellfire tr. Kari Dickson
Friis & Kaaberbol - The Considerate Killer tr. Elisabeth Dyssegaard
Camilla Grebe - The Ice Beneath Her tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel
Lotte & Soren Hammer - The Vanished tr. Martin Aitken
Kati Hiekkapelto - The Exiled tr. David Hackston
Johanne Hildebrandt - The Unbroken Line of the Moon tr. Tara F Chace
Martin Holmen - Clinch tr. Henning Koch
Anne Holt - Beyond the Truth tr. Anne Bruce
Anne Holt - No Echo tr. Anne Bruce
Jorn Lier Horst - Ordeal tr. Anne Bruce
Steffen Jacobsen - Retribution tr. Charlotte Barslund
Jari Jarvela - The Girl and the Rat tr. Kristian London
Ragnar Jonasson - Blackout tr. Quentin Bates
Mari Jungstedt & Ruben Eliassen - A Darker Sky tr Paul Norlen
Mari Jungstedt - The Fourth Victim tr. Tiina Nunnally
Mons Kallentoft - Souls of Air tr. Neil Smith
Lars Kepler - Stalker tr. Neil Smith
Katja Kettu - The Midwife tr. David Hackston
Jonas Hassen Khemiri - Everything I Don't Remember tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles
Jesper Bugge Kold - Winter Men tr. K E Semmel
Camilla Lackberg - The Ice Child tr. Tiina Nunnally
Hans Olav Lahlum - Chameleon People tr. Kari Dickson
Leena Lehtolainen - Fatal Headwind tr. Owen F Witesman
Leena Lehtolainen - The Devil's Cubs tr. Jenni Salmi
Minna Lindgren - The Lavender Ladies Detective Agency: Death in Sunset Grove tr. Lola Rogers
Liza Marklund - The Final Word tr. Neil Smith
Simon Pasternak - Death Zones tr. Martin Aitken
Leif GW Persson - The Dying Detective tr. Neil Smith
Leif GW Persson - The Sword of Justice tr. Neil Smith
Agnes Ravatn - The Bird Tribunal tr. Rosie Hedger
Liselotte Roll - Good Girls Don't Tell tr. Ian Giles
Thomas Rydahl - The Hermit tr. K E Semmel
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Why Did You Lie? tr. Victoria Cribb
Gunnar Staalesen - Where Roses Never Die tr. Don Bartlett
Viveca Sten - Closed Circles tr. Laura A Wideburg
Erik Axl Sund - The Crow Girl tr. Neil Smith
Gard Sveen - The Last Pilgrim tr. Steven T Murray
Antti Tuomainen - The Mine tr. David Hackston
Helene Tursten - Who Watcheth tr. Marlaine Delargy
Carl-Johan Vallgren - The Tunnel tr. Rachel Willson-Broyles
Kjell Westo - The Wednesday Club tr. Neil Smith
Joakim Zander - The Brother (apa The Believer) tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Cover Theme - Underwater Hair
Hidden Bodies and Undertow were published in 2016 and Friend Request is due out in July.
Monday, March 13, 2017
Film News: The Girl in the Spider's Web
Press release from MacLehose Press regarding a new Lisbeth Salander film with a new cast:
LISBETH SALANDER TO RETURN TO THE SCREENIN SONY PICTURES’ “THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB”OCTOBER 5, 2018FEDE ALVAREZ TO DIRECT ADAPTATION OF WORLDWIDE BESTSELLERProduction to Begin in SeptemberFilm to Feature a New Cast – Alvarez Meeting with Actresses to Play Lisbeth SalanderCULVER CITY, Calif., March 13, 2017 – Lisbeth Salander, the cult figure and title character of the acclaimed Millennium book series created by Stieg Larsson, will return to the screen in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, a first-time adaptation of the recent global bestseller written by David Lagercrantz. Fede Alvarez, the director of 2016’s breakout thriller Don’t Breathe, will helm the project from a screenplay by Steven Knight and Fede Alvarez & Jay Basu. Scott Rudin, Søren Stærmose, Ole Søndberg, Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon, Eli Bush, and Berna Levin will produce; the executive producers are Anni Faurbye Fernandez, Line Winther Skyum Funch, Johannes Jensen, and David Fincher.The new film will feature an entirely new cast, and the announcement marks the kickoff of a global search for an actress to portray in the iconic role of Lisbeth Salander. The production will begin principal photography in September of this year with a release date scheduled for October 5, 2018.The Girl in the Spider’s Web will be the first in the best-selling series to be produced into an English-language film in its initial adaptation. The previous books in the series have been adapted into Swedish-language films, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a remake of the Swedish film. It became a global hit for Columbia Pictures, taking in over $230 million worldwide.The announcement was made today at the London Book Fair during a celebration for the fifth Millennium book launch, also by Lagercrantz. Sony’s Columbia Pictures retains the rights to all future Millennium Series books.Sanford Panitch, president of Columbia Pictures, said, “In all of contemporary literature, Lisbeth Salander is completely sui generis – probably one of the greatest female literary characters of all time in my view. Modern punk defiance personified, she is unforgettable in every incarnation, truly one of the most compelling characters we’ve seen in recent years. David Lagercrantz’s brilliant work in continuing this remarkable series honors Stieg Larsson’s masterpiece. We at Sony are so honored to be part of this series with Yellowbird and why we’re so excited to be making an original film of The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Fede Alvarez is the perfect choice to direct. Fede is an amazing director with a unique vision of the world in particular his talent and skill in creating psychological intensity will bring Lisbeth Salander back into popular movie culture with a roar.”Alvarez added, “I’m hugely excited and grateful for this opportunity. Sony has become family to me and I can’t think of a more thrilling project to celebrate our relationship. Lisbeth Salander is the kind of character any director dreams of bringing to life. We’ve got a great script and now comes the most fun part – finding our Lisbeth.”The Millennium Series is a worldwide bestseller, with the four books selling over 86 million copies since their debut.MacLehose Press will publish Millennium V (title to be confirmed) on 7th September, 2017.
Review: Ed's Dead by Russel D McLean
Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
ED'S DEAD is a gripping and darkly humorous tale about a young lady, Jen, who works in a bookshop and likes Prosecco. She has tried, and failed, to write a novel and now seems to be stuck with a dodgy bloke who has an annoying roving eye for pretty women. After one too many sessions of being taken for granted, she tells him to get out. Which he does. Only to come back later, when she is out, to attempt to remove his stash from her cupboard. Returning early, Jen sees the lights are on and in fear for her life, probably due to the amount of books she reads, searches for the unknown intruder in her flat, armed with a large kitchen knife. When he emerges from the cupboard, Jen stabs him in the chest, only to discover it is Ed, her ex-bloke. Ed dies messily on the carpet in front of her and so begins a somewhat crazy period in Jen's life. After deciding not to call the police, she goes on the run - from the police, from a criminal gang who want the stash, and from the media, who soon label her the Most Dangerous Woman in Scotland. Jen keeps escaping from impossible situations. And the body count keeps on growing. Poor Jen. Most of the deaths at her hands are accidental and she has no idea how they happen exactly. She must decide what to do before the police, or the gang, or the media, catch up with her.
This book is fantastic! Fast paced and at times just utter nuts, the killings are so gruesome that they end up incredibly funny. Russel D McLean has written a beautiful masterpiece of modern Scottish Noir that leaves you unsure about whether you should laugh or cry. Jen is a very ordinary, likeable, lass who simply ups her game plan in order to survive when things take an unexpected turn. You want her to escape from her pursuers and end up rather proud of the person she becomes, despite the bloody trail she leaves in her wake. The blurb on the back of the book states that this story "proves, once and for all, the female of the species really is more deadly than the male." I reckon this might just be right!
Very highly recommended.
Amanda Gillies, March 2017.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Review: A Place to Bury Strangers by Grant Nicol
Reviewed by Ewa Sherman.
Detective Grímur Karlsson’s life isn’t a barrel of laughs. Ageing, depressed, dissatisfied with his professional life, he has become known for not solving crimes, and failing to secure arrests and convictions in his two last major cases. His world-weary cynicism has contributed to people losing lives. Occasionally he still fights his own unwillingness and loneliness to concentrate on the job. When he reluctantly starts to investigate the disappearance of Svandis, a run-away girl from a ‘good home’ and a seriously desperate heroin addict, it’s obvious that nobody believes in his abilities, including her family and her hapless boyfriend. Very soon the National Commissioner gets involved and orders Grímur to be taken off the case, though Svandis and her habit funded by prostitution don’t seem to warrant such a strong opposition from the establishment, as she is just one of many ‘sex workers’ who will agree to do anything to survive. Until of course some insignificant clues begin to appear to be pointing in the direction of certain powerful men. Yet it will be a while before the depressed policeman realises what is really going on: shortly after his superiors’ decision he became a target of a violent shooting when following another young woman who had seemed to be in danger.
As he lies in an induced coma in a hospital his boss Ævar and a colleague Eygló are called to a gruesome crime scene at a deserted building site. A charred body is found in a barrel; behind it on a wall an enigmatic message in Norwegian written in a black paint. The police establish that the corpse was of a drug dealer, low in the pecking order, and want to resolve the matter quickly, especially as there might be a perfect villain on the loose, searching for an ex-girlfriend in dodgy clubs in Reykjavik: the notorious Knut Vigeland. The Norwegian despises Iceland yet makes frequent business trips to the country: and so far his activities under the official radar had only damaged the local drug barons. Ævar is determined to tie him to both crimes.
A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS is New Zealander Grant Nicol’s third book set in Iceland. The author’s passion for the country doesn’t mean that the story revolves around picturesque landscapes and tourist attractions. Although some well-known landmarks are mentioned, for example the famous Perlan building, they become points of focus for the plot which mostly moves between the police station, various unsavoury places in the capital, and then further away in the suburbs where nothing good ever happens to the main characters. The use of the Icelandic setting helps to shed light on some perilous issues and deeply unhappy types, as the central drug problem is closely linked to the abuse of women. The narration jumps time-wise and adds to the clever confusion which keeps it interesting. This piece of writing isn’t for those who want things cosy and pretty. But if you are not afraid of getting to know the brutal underbelly of this island, then read about a gritty and violent place to (apparently) bury strangers.
Ewa Sherman, March 2017
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
New Releases - March 2017
Here's a snapshot of what I think is published for the first time in March 2017 (and is usually a UK date but occasionally will be a US or Australian date). March and future months (and years) can be found on the Future Releases page. If I've missed anything do please leave a comment.
• Adams, Jane - Death Scene #2 Detective Chief Inspector Henry Johnstone, 1928
• Black, Tony - Bay of Martyrs (with Matt Neal) #1 Clay Moloney
• Bowen, Rhys - In Farleigh Field
• Casey, Jane - Let the Dead Speak #7 DC Maeve Kerrigan
• Chapman, Julia - Date with Death #1 The Dales Detective Series
• Connolly, Sheila - Cruel Winter #5 Maura Donovan, County Cork
• Croft, Adam - Only the Truth
• Dard, Frederic - The Executioner Weeps
• Dickinson, David - Death at Melrose Hall #15 Lord Francis Powerscourt, Victorian era
• Downing, David - Lenin's Roller Coaster #3 Jack McColl
• Ellory, R J - Kings of America
• Feeney, Alice - Sometimes I Lie
• Fowler, Christopher - Bryant & May - Wild Chamber #14 Inspectors Bryant and May, London
• Giolito, Malin Persson - Quicksand (UK: April)
• Gray, Alex - Still Dark #14 DCI Lorimer & psychologist Solomon Brightman, Glasgow
• Gray, Clio - Deadly Prospects #1 Scottish Mysteries
• Hilary, Sarah - Quieter Than Killing #4 DI Marnie Rome
• Hilton, Matt - Raw Wounds #3 Grey and Villere, Louisiana
• Horst, Jorn Lier - When It Grows Dark #1 William Wisting Prequel
• Johnson, Matt - Deadly Game #2 Robert Finlay
• Knight, Alanna - The Darkness Within #1 Inspector Faro and Rose McQuinn
• Lucius, Walter - Butterfly on the Storm #1 Heartland Trilogy
• McCarthy, Rob - A Handful of Ashes #2 Dr Harry Kent
• McGowan, Claire - Blood Tide #5 Paula Maguire, Forensic psychologist, Northern Ireland
• McLean, Russel D - Ed's Dead
• Mendoza, Elmer - The Acid Test #2 Detective Edgar "Lefty" Mendieta
• Michaud, Andree - Boundary
• Mina, Denise - The Long Drop
• Naughton, Sarah J - Tattletale
• Pastor, Ben - Road to Ithaca #5 Wehrmacht Captain Martin Bora, 1939
• Rhys, Rachel - A Dangerous Crossing #1 Lily Shepherd, 1939
• Riches, Marnie - Born Bad
• Santiago, Mikel - The Last Night at Tremorne Beach
• Schepp, Emelie - Marked For Revenge #2 Jana Berzelius, Public Prosecutor
• Sigurdardottir, Yrsa - The Legacy #1 Children's House series
• Spencer, Sally - The Hidden #12 DCI Monika Paniatowski, Whitebridge
• Stratmann, Linda - A True and Faithful Brother #7 Frances Doughty, London, 1880
• Taylor, C L - The Escape
• Thomson, E S - Dark Asylum #2 Jem Flockhart, Apothecary, 1850s
• Todd, Charles - Racing the Devil #19 Insp Rutledge
• Trow, M J - Eleventh Hour #8 Christopher Marlowe
• Varenne, Antonin - Retribution Road
• Wesolowski, Matt - Six Stories
• Wilkins, Susan - The Killer #3 Kaz Phelps
• Winspear, Jacqueline In This Grave Hour #13 Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator, 1930s London
Friday, February 24, 2017
2017 Titles from Riverrun
Here are the titles relevant to Euro Crime that are being published by Riverrun in 2017. (The blurbs are taken from amazon.co.uk.)
Hardback - Fiction
January
Peter May - Cast Iron - the conclusion to the Enzo Files (#6):
THE GIRL IN THE LAKE
In 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heatwave, a drought exposed her remains.
THE MAN ON THE CASE
No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case - the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve.
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET
Yet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie's murder, he opens a Pandora's box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family.
May
William Shaw - Sympathy for the Devil (#4 DS Breen and WPC Tozer)
SUMMER OF LOVE
She made a profit from her youth. She's not beautiful anymore - but she will be young forever.
Called away from his pregnant girlfriend, Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen knows the sight of the murdered prostitute will be with him all his life. But this is what he does: he finds killers. Helen Tozer, more than most, understands why.
SUMMER OF DEATH
The girl they called Julie Teenager had a client list full of suspects - all rich, powerful - and protected. Someone warns off the beat coppers; someone disturbs the crime scene. Breen begins to fear that this is more than the murder of a prostitute. It's political.
Then Helen, with her ex-copper's instincts and fierce moral sense, gets dangerously involved. And Breen knows he has more to lose than ever before. He is about to become a father. He can have no sympathy for the devil.
Breen and Tozer met through murder. They work in a world before forensics or criminal databases; a world that's bigoted and brutal. Tense, dramatic and ingeniously plotted, Sympathy for the Devil is a gripping police thriller that delivers crime with a conscience.
July
Roslund & Hellström - Three Minutes tr. Elizabeth Clark Wessel (#7 Detective Inspector Ewert Grens & sequel to Three Seconds tr. Kari Dickson)
INFILTRATOR
One-time Swedish government agent Piet Hoffmann is on the run: both from the life prison sentence he escaped, and from the Polish drug mafia he double-crossed. Only Hoffmann's handler, Erik Wilson, knows he now hides in Calí, Colombia, living under a false identity with his wife Zofia and sons Rasmus and Hugo.
INFORMANT
But life on the run is precarious. And so when Hoffmann, in order to survive, accepts employment as a bodyguard and hit man for the Colombian cocaine mafia, and is simultaneously approached by the US DEA to infiltrate the same cartel, he chooses to say yes to both. Hoffmann has a new, lucrative double life.
IN TOO DEEP
However, Hoffmann's successful balancing act is short lived. When Timothy D. Crouse, Chairman of the US House of Representatives, is kidnapped while on a trip to Colombia, US forces settle on a new enemy for their next War on Terror. This gives the cartel and the US government the same problem. Piet Hoffmann.
Condemned and hung out to dry, Hoffmann is stranded, and marked. Yet Erik Wilson will find him help from the most unlikely of figures - the stubborn, acerbic Swedish detective who has never forgotten Piet Hoffmann's face. DCI Ewert Grens - the enemy who Hoffmann once tricked - will now become the only ally he can trust.
November
Jordi Llobregat - The Secret of Vesalius tr. Thomas Bunstead
Frankenstein meets The Shadow of the Wind in a Gothic thriller set in the diabolical city of fin-de-siecle Barcelona.
Daniel Amat has left Spain and all that happened there behind him. Having just achieved a brilliant role in Ancient Languages at Oxford University and an even more advantageous engagement, the arrival of a letter - a demand - stamped Barcelona comes like a cold hand from behind.
He arrives back in that old, labyrinthine and near-mythic city a few days before the great 1888 World Fair, amid dread whispers of murders - the injuries reminiscent of an ancient curse, and bearing signs of the genius 16th century anatomist, Vesalius. Daniel is soon pulled into the depths of the crime, and eventually into the tunnels below Barcelona, where his own dark past and the future of science are joined in a terrible venture - to bring the secret of Vesalius to life.
Gothic and gripping, this historical thriller makes of Barcelona a diabolical character - emerging out of the dark into a new electrical age, aflame with spirit, superstition and science. Published in eighteen countries, Jordi Llobregat's bestselling first novel mixes a passionate setting and cryptic mystery into a genre-crossing phenomenon.
Hardback - Non Fiction
October
Christopher Fowler - The Book of Forgotten Authors
Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead.
So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves.
We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery: from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada or Lionel Davidson. Whether male or female, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner - no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten.
These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favourites: including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world.
This is a book about books and their authors. It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide.
Paperback - Fiction
February
William Shaw - The Birdwatcher
March
Roslund & Hellström - Three Seconds; Two Soldiers; Cell 8 all tr. Kari Dickson
April
Peter May - Snake Head
May
James Henry - Blackwater
June
D A Mishani - The Man Who Wanted to Know tr. Todd Hasak-Lowy
July
Peter May - Cast Iron
September
Peter May - The Runner
November
Peter May - Chinese Whispers
William Shaw - Sympathy for the Devil
Hardback - Fiction
January
THE GIRL IN THE LAKE
In 1989, a killer dumped the body of twenty-year-old Lucie Martin into a picturesque lake in the West of France. Fourteen years later, during a summer heatwave, a drought exposed her remains.
THE MAN ON THE CASE
No one was ever convicted of her murder. But now, forensic expert Enzo Macleod is reviewing this stone-cold case - the toughest of those he has been challenged to solve.
THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET
Yet when Enzo finds a flaw in the original evidence surrounding Lucie's murder, he opens a Pandora's box that not only raises old ghosts but endangers his entire family.
May
SUMMER OF LOVE
She made a profit from her youth. She's not beautiful anymore - but she will be young forever.
Called away from his pregnant girlfriend, Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen knows the sight of the murdered prostitute will be with him all his life. But this is what he does: he finds killers. Helen Tozer, more than most, understands why.
SUMMER OF DEATH
The girl they called Julie Teenager had a client list full of suspects - all rich, powerful - and protected. Someone warns off the beat coppers; someone disturbs the crime scene. Breen begins to fear that this is more than the murder of a prostitute. It's political.
Then Helen, with her ex-copper's instincts and fierce moral sense, gets dangerously involved. And Breen knows he has more to lose than ever before. He is about to become a father. He can have no sympathy for the devil.
Breen and Tozer met through murder. They work in a world before forensics or criminal databases; a world that's bigoted and brutal. Tense, dramatic and ingeniously plotted, Sympathy for the Devil is a gripping police thriller that delivers crime with a conscience.
July
INFILTRATOR
One-time Swedish government agent Piet Hoffmann is on the run: both from the life prison sentence he escaped, and from the Polish drug mafia he double-crossed. Only Hoffmann's handler, Erik Wilson, knows he now hides in Calí, Colombia, living under a false identity with his wife Zofia and sons Rasmus and Hugo.
INFORMANT
But life on the run is precarious. And so when Hoffmann, in order to survive, accepts employment as a bodyguard and hit man for the Colombian cocaine mafia, and is simultaneously approached by the US DEA to infiltrate the same cartel, he chooses to say yes to both. Hoffmann has a new, lucrative double life.
IN TOO DEEP
However, Hoffmann's successful balancing act is short lived. When Timothy D. Crouse, Chairman of the US House of Representatives, is kidnapped while on a trip to Colombia, US forces settle on a new enemy for their next War on Terror. This gives the cartel and the US government the same problem. Piet Hoffmann.
Condemned and hung out to dry, Hoffmann is stranded, and marked. Yet Erik Wilson will find him help from the most unlikely of figures - the stubborn, acerbic Swedish detective who has never forgotten Piet Hoffmann's face. DCI Ewert Grens - the enemy who Hoffmann once tricked - will now become the only ally he can trust.
November
Frankenstein meets The Shadow of the Wind in a Gothic thriller set in the diabolical city of fin-de-siecle Barcelona.
Daniel Amat has left Spain and all that happened there behind him. Having just achieved a brilliant role in Ancient Languages at Oxford University and an even more advantageous engagement, the arrival of a letter - a demand - stamped Barcelona comes like a cold hand from behind.
He arrives back in that old, labyrinthine and near-mythic city a few days before the great 1888 World Fair, amid dread whispers of murders - the injuries reminiscent of an ancient curse, and bearing signs of the genius 16th century anatomist, Vesalius. Daniel is soon pulled into the depths of the crime, and eventually into the tunnels below Barcelona, where his own dark past and the future of science are joined in a terrible venture - to bring the secret of Vesalius to life.
Gothic and gripping, this historical thriller makes of Barcelona a diabolical character - emerging out of the dark into a new electrical age, aflame with spirit, superstition and science. Published in eighteen countries, Jordi Llobregat's bestselling first novel mixes a passionate setting and cryptic mystery into a genre-crossing phenomenon.
Hardback - Non Fiction
October
Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead.
So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves.
We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery: from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada or Lionel Davidson. Whether male or female, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner - no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten.
These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favourites: including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world.
This is a book about books and their authors. It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide.
Paperback - Fiction
February
William Shaw - The Birdwatcher
March
Roslund & Hellström - Three Seconds; Two Soldiers; Cell 8 all tr. Kari Dickson
April
Peter May - Snake Head
May
James Henry - Blackwater
June
D A Mishani - The Man Who Wanted to Know tr. Todd Hasak-Lowy
July
Peter May - Cast Iron
September
Peter May - The Runner
November
Peter May - Chinese Whispers
William Shaw - Sympathy for the Devil
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Review: A Cold Death by Antonio Manzini tr. Antony Shugaar
Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
Friday, March 16th, Aosta, Northern Italy.
Rain, then snow, mountains swathed in cloud. A wind rattles the No Parking signs in Via Brocherel as Irina rounds the corner. Its icy slap doesn’t bother Belarus-born Irina. She is thinking about her Italian breakfast of coffee and brioche and how different it is from the barley gruel and muddy coffee back home. Her partner Ahmed won’t believe that her father sucks lumps of butter as a treat. She loves Ahmed, the Egyptian who smells of the apples he sells on his stall.
She reaches the apartment building (so unlike the block where she and Ahmed live with Ahmed’s sullen eighteen-year-old son Hilmi) and gets out her keys. The apartment door unlocks too easily, not double-locked. Irina calls out her employer’s name as she walks through to the sitting room which is a mess – with the remains of a meal, wine glasses, a slept-in blanket on the sofa. None of this is right. Gathering up the glasses, Irina walks through to the kitchen. Drawers and cupboards have been flung open, kitchen equipment and cutlery strewn everywhere. She rushes to the bedroom. It’s empty, the bed unmade. Turning quickly, she steps on a shattered cell phone. “Burglars!” she yells, falling badly in her struggle to get out of the apartment. She bangs on all of the neighbours’ doors in turn but gets no response. The street too seems deserted. Until she spots an elderly man with a tiny dog on a leash. She limps towards retired Warrant Officer Rastelli who stares at the dishevelled woman with the bloodied knee. Her mouth opens and closes and he switches his hearing aid back on; he always turns it off when he walks Flipper, the little mutt yaps all the time. The woman is distraught and yelling about burglars. Rastelli falls back on habit. He stands to attention and waits.
Deputy Police Chief Rocco Schiavone gets up with his alarm, opens the curtains and stares at the grey sky. No sun, no surprise. He sighs and begins his working day ritual of cell phone off, breakfast in the café, an early morning joint. Only then, will he turn his phone on and start the working day. There is a text from his girlfriend Nora. Which reminds him that today is her birthday and that the list of gifts she doesn’t want is long and specific. Rocco’s gloomy thoughts are interrupted by his assistant Caterina Rispoli. Amongst other things she says there are reports of drug dealing around the railway station. And Rocco has a brainwave which allows him to get rid of two birds with one stone. Two birds, two idiots: D’Intino and Deruta. He orders the pair to stake out the park near the station each night, starting straight away. Never mind that Deruta helps out his wife at her bakery at night – he’ll just have to help her during the day. With two liabilities off his hands, Rocco is just asking Caterina’s advice on a birthday gift for Nora when the news comes through of a burglary on Via Brocherel.
At the crime scene together with Officer Pieron, Rocco works the apartment’s lock open with his Swiss Army knife. Irina, the cleaning woman, says every room is a mess. Just one door remains closed, at the end of the hall. They open it. Darkness. A smell that tells Rocco that something is very wrong. He switches on the light which immediately shorts out. The room is pitch black again. But what he sees in that brief moment of light is enough for him to call the Medical Examiner. A woman hangs by a cord from the light hook, her head slumped onto her chest…
I was unsure about the writing as I began A COLD DEATH, the second Rocco Schiavone mystery to be translated into English. At first its descriptions seemed florid – but I can be a hard-boiled girl sometimes. And it was a short adjustment. I soon settled in, enjoying the pace and story-telling of this murder investigation hiding in the skirts of a suicide. The dialogue flows well; crackling and capturing that subtle thing – a tongue in cheek remark that we need to read as such. Perhaps Manzini’s skill with dialogue owes something to his career as an actor and director. The star is Schiavone himself. If you accept his profanities and fury, you can quickly get to like Rocco Schiavone. In Rome he grew up with the bad boys before becoming a successful policeman. Now he is exiled to the frozen wastes of Aosta, as he sees it, after his temper got the better of a well-connected suspect and his own career. He misses Rome, he hates the cold, and despite an eye for a pretty woman he will be forever “married” to his wife Marina, a dead woman with whom he talks in the privacy of his own home. And just to cap off his search for justice in A COLD DEATH, that well-connected suspect crops up again. An atmospheric, fast-paced read, this story has character and characters enough to keep you coming back for what I hope will be another slice of the series.
Lynn Harvey, February 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Copycat Covers - Birds
Our current display at work is themed on birds...
so I'm particularly looking out for books with birds in the title or on the cover and I happened to spot these two. The LHS (horror) one came out in 2014 and the RHS (crime) is due out in 2017:
so I'm particularly looking out for books with birds in the title or on the cover and I happened to spot these two. The LHS (horror) one came out in 2014 and the RHS (crime) is due out in 2017:
Friday, February 17, 2017
New CrimeFest Awards for Children's & YA Crime Fiction
I'm very excited about this news regarding CrimeFest's new awards for Children's and YA Crime Fiction. I know from my own experience as a librarian and a reader/reviewer of YA fiction that it's an increasingly popular field.
I recently snapped this collection of recently released children's crime titles at the library:
Here's how to submit the titles for consideration.
I recently snapped this collection of recently released children's crime titles at the library:
Here's how to submit the titles for consideration.
CRIMEFEST LAUNCHES AWARD FOR BEST YA & CHILDREN’S CRIME NOVELSCrimeFest opens free submissions from crime fiction books for children and young adults published in 2016CrimeFest is delighted to announce two new awards:
- Best Crime Novel for Children (ages 8-12)
- Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (ages 12-16)
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2017.CrimeFest, the UK’s biggest international crime fiction convention, is thrilled to introduce two new awards recognising the outstanding contribution that crime novels for children and young adults make to the genre, as well as the burgeoning interest of children’s fiction and YA throughout literature. The winners for best crime novels for children and young adults in 2016 will receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award, presented at the CrimeFest gala awards dinner on Saturday 20th May, 2017.There is no charge for submissions in order to encourage all publishers, regardless of size, to submit titles published for the first time in the British Isles in 2016. A team of British reviewers of YA and children’s fiction will establish the shortlist and winner from titles spanning humorous crime, spy, suspense, thriller and more.Continuing last year’s successful CrimeFest promotion where 1000 crime fiction books were given away for free through local libraries, all books provided as part of the submission process will be distributed amongst schools in Bristol. After nine years of hosting CrimeFest, the organisers continue to involve the local community in the city that has hosted this top convention.On behalf of his CRIMEFEST co-hosts, Adrian Muller said: “We have become increasingly aware that there are some great authors who are writing brilliant, age-appropriate crime fiction for children and young adults. They are making an outstanding contribution to the genre, as well as celebrating the burgeoning interest of children in fiction as a whole, and we felt these efforts should not go unrecognised.”In addition to this year’s new awards, YA crime fiction heavyweight Antony Horowitz, of Alex Rider fame, is one of CrimeFest’s guest speakers at this year’s event.The new prizes join the convention’s established awards for adults:
- Audible Sounds of Crime Award (for best crime audiobook)
- eDunnit Award (for best crime ebook)
- Last Laugh Award (for best humorous crime novel)
- H.R.F. Keating Award (for biography or critical book related to crime fiction)
THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2017.CRIMEFEST, the international crime fiction convention held annually in Bristol, draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world, and gives all delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in a friendly, informal and inclusive atmosphere.For full submission guidelines see below or visit the CRIMEFEST website:
- Best Crime Novel for Children (ages 8-12)
- Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (ages 12-16)SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Best Crime Novel for Children (ages 8-12)Eligible are any humorous crime, spy, suspense and thriller titles, etc. commercially published in hardback or paperback format for the first time in the British Isles in 2016. The age group for this award is 8–12 years.THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2017.
For submitted titles to be eligible, the four print copies of each title must be received by 17 March. Please send to: CRIMEFEST, BASEMENT FLAT, 6 Rodney Place, Bristol BS8 4HY.
A list of entries and their details should be submitted by email to childfiction@crimefest.com and should be listed in field names as follows:First name – last name – title – month – publisher(Example: Joe – Bloggs – The Hangman’s Noose – Murder Press – May)
The above details can be submitted in the body of an email or attached in an email as text, rich-text-format, Word or Excel files. The preferred method is an attached Excel file
All entries must be accompanied by the publisher’s contact details.By submitting entries, publishers agree to provide a further five copies of a title should it be shortlisted. These will be for promotional purposes and/or as prizes.Should the winner or a representative not be present to collect the prizes, then the publisher agrees to reimburse CRIMEFEST for the cost of shipping the prizes to the recipient or the publisher.
Best Crime Novel for Young Adults (ages 12-16)Eligible are any humorous crime, spy, suspense and thriller titles, etc. commercially published in hardback or paperback format for the first time in the British Isles in 2016. The age group for the award is 12–16 years.THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2017.
For submitted titles to be eligible, the four print copies of each title must be received by 17 March. Please send to: CRIMEFEST, BASEMENT FLAT, 6 Rodney Place, Bristol BS8 4HY.
A list of entries and their details should be submitted by email to ya@crimefest.com and should be listed in field names as follows:First name – last name – title – month – publisher(Example: Joe – Bloggs – The Hangman’s Noose – Murder Press – May)
The above details can be submitted in the body of an email or attached in an email as text, rich-text-format, Word or Excel files. The preferred method is an attached Excel file.All entries must be accompanied by the publisher’s contact details.By submitting entries, publishers agree to provide a further five copies of a title should it be shortlisted. These will be for promotional purposes and/or as prizes.Should the winner or a representative not be present to collect the prizes, then the publisher agrees to reimburse CRIMEFEST for the cost of shipping the prizes to the recipient or the publisher.
Millennium Book V News
I've just received the following news from MacLehose Press regarding the latest entry in the Stieg Larsson "Girl" series, continued by David Lagercrantz:
Swedish publishers Norstedts today revealed their title and cover for the fifth instalment in the Millennium series created by Stieg Larsson. Mannen Som Sökte Sin Skugga or The Man Who Hunted/Chased His Shadow is written by David Lagercrantz who also penned book four, The Girl in the Spider’s Web. Norstedts revealed the information on David Lagercrantz’s new Instagram account @davidlagercrantz.
Previous Swedish titles for the series translate as:
Men who Hate Women
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Castles in the Sky
What Doesn’t Kill You
MacLehose Press will reveal the English language title for the novel, which will be published worldwide on 7 September 2017, shortly.
A short Q&A with David Lagercrantz:
David Lagercrantz, how did the attention around The Girl in the Spider’s Web affect you?
“I couldn’t have imagined what effect the news about an upcoming fourth novel in the Millennium series would have. I thought people would shrug their shoulders and get on with their lives. Instead, Swedish and international media went half crazy and the whole thing just escalated. Sure, I fantasized that the novel would become a success; I am after all a hopeless dreamer. When I find things most difficult, I dream of triumphs, and most often I am disappointed. But this time I was amazed by the response.”
How did you find the motivation to write another book in the series?
“Stieg Larsson created a fantastic universe that I feel continuously inspired by. On holiday with my family an idea struck me, and gave me the same fever that I lived with when I wrote The Girl in the Spider’s Web. It is not so great for my sleep and my neurosis, but it is definitely good for my writing.”
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Review: Talking To The Sharks by Martin O'Brien
Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)
This is the ninth thriller in the Daniel Jacquot detective series.
It is 2004 and five years have passed since Daniel Jacquot's partner died during childbirth in a Marseilles hospital (see the last book KNIFE GUN POISON BOMB).
Following her death, a heartbroken Jacquot retired from the police service and took his two baby daughters, Mathilde and Beatrice, to the French West Indies, starting a new life on Ile des Freres, a small island off the coast of Martinique.
Their new home is an old palm-thatched boat house on Trinite beach that Jacquot has just finished renovating. His daughters are now at primary school in the main town and Jacquot spends his days doing the school run and putting the finishing touches to his house. Life is good and Jacquot is finally coming to terms with his loss.
But the good life is put at risk when an ex-lover (Boni Milhaud, see THE WATERMAN) arrives on Ile des Freres to ask for Jacquot's help. Boni's husband Patric Stuyvesant, a professional gambler and the owner of private gaming clubs in the Bahamas, has gone missing with a girlfriend. To make good their escape Patric has stolen ten million dollars from gangland boss Ettore DiCorsa, who runs a money laundering syndicate based in Nassau. All Boni wants is for Jacquot to find her missing husband before DiCorsa catches up with him.
At first Jacquot wants nothing to do with it, explaining to Boni that he has retired, that he is too old to do what she wants and that he cannot help her. But in the days that follow, Jacquot is given no choice but to take on the case, following Patric's trail from the luxury estates and gaming tables of Nassau to the distant vineyards of Provence. What he uncovers on this journey is a deadly conspiracy that threatens not only DiCorsa's syndicate but everything that Jacquot holds dear.
This exceptional writer has yet again penned an absolutely brilliant novel which had me hooked from the first page. His books are exceptionally well plotted and I can never guess what is going to happen next. His rich cast of characters are exceptionally well described and it makes for a very absorbing read and I was gripped from page one until the final conclusion. The book is a classic police procedural, extremely well written with a good ear for dialogue and characterisation. The plot has many dramatic twists and turns and vividly echoes the writer's knowledge of French and West Indian culture.
I have read for review three of his previous books: CONFESSION, THE DYING MINUTES and KNIFE GUN POISON BOMB and enjoyed this one even more than the earlier three. I hope that this one is not the last that we hear of DI Daniel Jacquot and I look forward to reading and reviewing many more. Recommended very highly.
Terry Halligan, February 2017.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
New Agatha Christie-related crime fiction
I've recently received a couple of proofs of books featuring either Agatha Christie or one of her plots:
Andrew Wilson's A Talent for Murder is published by Simon and Schuster on 18 May 2017 and features the lady herself.
Official blurb:
I wouldn't scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.’
Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, boards a train, preoccupied and flustered in the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel; rather, he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.
Fred Van Lente's Ten Dead Comedians is published by Quirk Books on 11 July 2017.
Official blurb:
Fred Van Lente s brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy blue collar comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon. All nine arrive via boat to find that every building on the island is completely deserted. Marooned without cell phone service or wifi signals, they soon find themselves being murdered one by one. But who is doing the killing, and why?
A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie s And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It s also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you ll never see coming!"
In addition, Agatha Christie stars as the sleuth in Alison Joseph's series which began with Murder Will Out (in 2015), followed by (so far) Hidden Sins and Death in Disguise.
Official blurb:
1923. The Great War is over, but the ghosts of the dead still linger. Agatha Christie was one of the lucky ones - her husband returned from the conflict - and for her, and her local neighbours, life has resumed. Agatha is beginning to gain some notoriety for her crime writing and she is busy working on her latest novel. But then her neighbour tells her there has been a real ‘murder at the vicarage’ - a young man, Cecil Coates, has been poisoned, and due to Christie’s expertise in the crime genre, the neighbourhood wants her to investigate. At first Agatha is reluctant to get involved. After all, she is a writer, not a detective. But then Robert Sayer, godson of her neighbour, and one of the main suspects in the case, appeals to her directly for help, and she finds herself being drawn in… What secrets and lies are lying beneath the village’s tranquil exterior? Can Agatha Christie use her imagination to draw the murderer out? ‘Murder Will Out’ is the first in a new series of murder mysteries, in which famous authoress Agatha Christie takes time out from writing to investigate real crime.
UPDATE (15/2/17)
Agatha plays a small but important role in Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser-Sampson which was published 12 January 2017 by Urbane Publications:
Official Blurb: he second in the Hampstead Murders series opens with a sudden death at an iconic local venue, which some of the team believe may be connected with an unsolved murder featuring Cold War betrayals worthy of George Smiley. It soon emerges that none other than Agatha Christie herself may be the key witness who is able to provide the missing link.
As with its bestselling predecessor, Death in Profile, the book develops the lives and loves of the team at 'Hampstead Nick'. While the next phase of a complicated love triangle plays itself out, the protagonists, struggling to crack not one but two apparently insoluble murders, face issues of national security in working alongside Special Branch.
On one level a classic whodunit, this quirky and intelligent read harks back not only to the world of Agatha Christie, but also to the Cold War thrillers of John Le Carre, making it a worthy successor to Death in Profile which was dubbed 'a love letter to the detective novel'.
Official blurb:
I wouldn't scream if I were you. Unless you want the whole world to learn about your husband and his mistress.’
Agatha Christie, in London to visit her literary agent, boards a train, preoccupied and flustered in the knowledge that her husband Archie is having an affair. She feels a light touch on her back, causing her to lose her balance, then a sense of someone pulling her to safety from the rush of the incoming train. So begins a terrifying sequence of events. Her rescuer is no guardian angel; rather, he is a blackmailer of the most insidious, manipulative kind. Agatha must use every ounce of her cleverness and resourcefulness to thwart an adversary determined to exploit her genius for murder to kill on his behalf.
Official blurb:
Fred Van Lente s brilliant debut is both an homage to the Golden Age of Mystery and a thoroughly contemporary show-business satire. As the story opens, nine comedians of various acclaim are summoned to the island retreat of legendary Hollywood funnyman Dustin Walker. The group includes a former late-night TV host, a washed-up improv instructor, a ridiculously wealthy blue collar comic, and a past-her-prime Vegas icon. All nine arrive via boat to find that every building on the island is completely deserted. Marooned without cell phone service or wifi signals, they soon find themselves being murdered one by one. But who is doing the killing, and why?
A darkly clever take on Agatha Christie s And Then There Were None and other classics of the genre, Ten Dead Comedians is a marvel of literary ventriloquism, with hilarious comic monologues in the voice of every suspect. It s also an ingeniously plotted puzzler with a twist you ll never see coming!"
In addition, Agatha Christie stars as the sleuth in Alison Joseph's series which began with Murder Will Out (in 2015), followed by (so far) Hidden Sins and Death in Disguise.
1923. The Great War is over, but the ghosts of the dead still linger. Agatha Christie was one of the lucky ones - her husband returned from the conflict - and for her, and her local neighbours, life has resumed. Agatha is beginning to gain some notoriety for her crime writing and she is busy working on her latest novel. But then her neighbour tells her there has been a real ‘murder at the vicarage’ - a young man, Cecil Coates, has been poisoned, and due to Christie’s expertise in the crime genre, the neighbourhood wants her to investigate. At first Agatha is reluctant to get involved. After all, she is a writer, not a detective. But then Robert Sayer, godson of her neighbour, and one of the main suspects in the case, appeals to her directly for help, and she finds herself being drawn in… What secrets and lies are lying beneath the village’s tranquil exterior? Can Agatha Christie use her imagination to draw the murderer out? ‘Murder Will Out’ is the first in a new series of murder mysteries, in which famous authoress Agatha Christie takes time out from writing to investigate real crime.
UPDATE (15/2/17)
Agatha plays a small but important role in Miss Christie Regrets by Guy Fraser-Sampson which was published 12 January 2017 by Urbane Publications:
As with its bestselling predecessor, Death in Profile, the book develops the lives and loves of the team at 'Hampstead Nick'. While the next phase of a complicated love triangle plays itself out, the protagonists, struggling to crack not one but two apparently insoluble murders, face issues of national security in working alongside Special Branch.
On one level a classic whodunit, this quirky and intelligent read harks back not only to the world of Agatha Christie, but also to the Cold War thrillers of John Le Carre, making it a worthy successor to Death in Profile which was dubbed 'a love letter to the detective novel'.
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