Spiral returns (at last!)

Wallander may have vanished for a few months but the very good news is that the second series of Spiral starts next Sunday.

The BBC4 website seems to be timing-out - no doubt as fans of Spiral click on it. I'll update this post when I can get through!

By my reckoning, this makes Waking the Dead, Marple, Harper's Island and Spiral all on one night...

Update: Spiral will be on BBC4 at 10pm, for 50 mins:

When a charred corpse is found in the boot of a car in the suburbs, Berthaud's police team are called to the scene along with the prosecutors Roban and Clement. So begins an investigation which forces the team into the broken, gang-ruled suburbs of Paris, and once more to the door of shady lawyer Josephine Karlsson.

Where's Wallander (BBC4)?

It seems enough people have been wondering where the remaining episodes of Wallander have got to. Well here's the official response:

Ten episodes of Wallander were recently broadcast on BBC Four. The remaining three episodes will be shown over the Christmas period.

Exact transmission dates/times will be available from mid-December 2009, and we'll publish the information here when confirmed.

Translated Crime Fiction Survey

I recently received an email from a student:

I'm a Publishing Masters student based in London. I'm writing a dissertation on translated crime fiction. As part of my research, I have created a reader survey. I am wondering whether you would be willing to flag it up on your blog.

The survey is quite painless and will only take a couple of minutes. This is the website to enter your answers.

New Competition - open World-Wide

September's competition prizes are 5 copies of A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio.

This month, the competition is open world-wide.

Just answer the question and the tie-breaker to go into the draw.

Details on how to enter can be found on the Euro Crime website Competition page.

Review: The Miracle at Speedy Motors (audio book)

The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith, read by Adjoa Andoh
(ISIS Audio Books, June 2008, CD ISBN:075312792X)

The Miracle at Speedy Motors is the ninth in the Mma Ramotswe, owner of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, series. This time around Mma Ramotswe has the problem of who is sending her anonymous spiteful letters as well as tracking down the family of an orphan whilst associate detective, Mma Makutsi's problems are more domestic.

As usual this was a delightful listen, taking the listener straight into Botswanan culture and how people there are linked together; a story of family, friends and a country, hung over a framework of problems to solve. In the main, all ends happily though the author doesn't take the easy route with a matter concerning Mma Ramotswe's family.

I enjoy this series more with each passing book and have already ordered the next one, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.

Adjoa Andoh has recently taken over the narration duties from Hilary Neville. Whereas the latter had a subtle way of distinguishing between the characters speaking, the former gives the characters much more easily identifiable voices. And, whether this is coincidence or not, to my ear her Mma Ramotswe does sound quite similar to the tv version of Mma Ramotswe played by Jill Scott.

(Adjoa Andoh is of course well known to Doctor Who fans as Martha's mother.)

The Euro Crime bibliography page for Alexander McCall Smith is here.

Loads more Dagger Award Categories...

The CWA have released a press statement today about their collaboration with ITV3, Cactus TV and Specsavers and details of new Dagger awards:

Specsavers, Cactus TV and ITV3 in partnership with the Crime Writers’ association (CWA) are pleased to announce they will join forces to celebrate the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards 2009. Following the success of last year’s naugural event on ITV3, the 2009 event will be merged with the Crime Writers’ Association Daggers and the new combined “Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on ITV3” will take place on Wednesday, 21st October, 2009.

The exciting new partnership is a 3 year deal between the four parties. The initiative has the support of leading publishers and high street retailers and will have posters and stickered books in shops and supermarkets and coverage in the press, reinforcing the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards as a major industry event.

The culmination of a six-week season of ITV3 crime and drama programming, the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards (“Daggers”) will be a glittering occasion at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. The awards ceremony will celebrate the crème de la crème of Crime & Thriller fiction with awards focusing on the best of British and International crime thriller novels. Literary Awards presented will include the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller, the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger for a new author of note, and the Hall Of Fame Dagger, which honours the achievements of the genre’s greatest exponents, past and present. In addition, the evening will introduce a brand new award – the ITV3 Bestseller Dagger, sponsored by Specsavers – voted for by ITV3 viewers.

The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards will also celebrate crime fiction off the page with awards focusing on the greatest crime and thriller films and TV dramas of the year – along with the actors who brought the characters to life. Each award of the evening will be presented by celebrity faces with a connection to the world of crime fiction.

In the run-up to the glittering awards, ITV3 will broadcast weekly documentaries, profiling six of the greatest crime writers working today: Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, P D James, Lynda La Plante, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell. In 2008, the series reached 3.12m viewers. These documentaries will also highlight the shortlists for the new literary awards as well as interviews with the shortlisted writers for the ITV3/Specsavers Bestsellers Dagger.

The televised ceremony which will transmit on ITV3 later in October will combine the Crime Writers’ Association’s most prestigious awards with the major categories featured in 2009’s Thriller Awards:

· The CWA Gold Dagger for the best Crime Novel of the year.
· The CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger – for first books by previously unpublished writers, awarded in memory of CWA founder John Creasey.
· The CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger – for the year’s best thriller.

· The ITV3 Bestseller Dagger, sponsored by Specsavers – voted for by ITV3 viewers.
· The Hall of Fame – honouring the achievements of the genre’s greatest exponents, past and present.
· The Film Dagger – for the best big-screen crime thriller story.
· The TV Dagger – for the best small-screen crime thriller drama.
· The International TV Dagger – for the best TV crime thriller drama from around the world.
· The Best Actress Dagger – for the female star of a crime thriller drama.
· The Best Actor Dagger - for the male star of a crime thriller drama.

The shortlists for each of these award categories will be announced to the public on 4th September, 2009.

The full press release can be read here (pdf format).

I can't say I'm completely clear about what's going on but I'm sure it'll become more obvious once the shortlists are out in a few days time. I wonder whether the other Daggers such as the International one will be integrated into the mainstream in 2010?

Events in the West Midlands 3 - Gerald Seymour

Gerald Seymour will be appearing in Birmingham on 25 September:

Birmingham Reader Development Office is pleased to announce its next event with thriller writer Gerald Seymour in conversation with Birmingham's Book Festival's Artistic Director, Jonathan Davidson on Friday 25 September.

GERALD SEYMOUR spent fifteen years as an international television news reporter with ITN, covering Vietnam and the Middle East, and specialising in terrorism across the world. Seymour was on the streets of Londonderry on the afternoon of Bloody Sunday, and was a witness to the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Seymour’s first novel was the acclaimed thriller Harry’s Game, set in Belfast. He has since written twenty-four more bestselling novels, of which six have been filmed for television in the UK and US.

Gerald's new book THE COLLABORATOR, out in September is a gripping edge of your seat thriller set in Naples. Taut, brutal and shocking, THE COLLABORATOR is Gerald Seymour writing at the top of his game with a new novel about this deadly Naples crime network. For generations, the Borellis have been a part of Naples … a vicious and completely amoral part. They are a clan of the Camorra and legendary in their ruthlessness - their stranglehold on people and businesses in their area is without mercy and when a person steps out of line there is no forgiveness. Even when that person is part of the family. Sicily has the Mafia … Naples has the Camorra.

This event takes place at Birmingham Library Theatre on Friday 25 September 2009 at 6.30pm (for a 7.00pm start). Tickets (free) via the Box Office on 0121 303 2323 or online via www.birminghamboxoffice.com.

Euro Crime will be posting a review of The Collaborator nearer to the publication date of 17 September.

Gerald Seymour's bibliography (with links to reviews) can be viewed here.

My Life According to Books I've Read This Year

A meme going the rounds at the moment. I've picked it up from Petrona:

Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.

I've used a mixture of teenage, SF and crime novels (and not all the answers are true!):

Describe Yourself: Airhead
How do you feel: Fish Out of Water
Describe where you currently live: Via delle Oche
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Borderlands
Your favourite form of transport: (The) Hitchhike(r's Guide to the Galaxy)
Your best friend is: Brewed, Crude and Tattooed
You and your friends are: Faceless Killers
What’s the weather like: Frozen Tracks
Favourite time of day: Twilight
If your life was a: (A) Very Persistent Illusion
What is life to you: Dead Men's Dust
Your fear: Betrayal
What is the best advice you have to give: Dalek I Loved You
Thought for the Day: Thirteen Reasons Why
How I would like to die: Sacrifice
My soul's present condition: (Star Trek Destiny:) Mere Mortals

New Reviews: Anderson, Jackson, Seymour, Solana, Theorin, Tickler

There's a little time left to enter the three competitions running this month; the prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

Paul Blackburn reviews the newly published Final Cut by Lin Anderson the latest in the Rhona MacLeod series and is eager to read the earlier books;

Amanda Gillies reviews the historical Pilgrim by James Jackson writing that "this book is just fantastic";

Terry Halligan reviews the second Paul Tallis thriller, The Mephisto Threat by E V Seymour (set in Turkey and...Birmingham) and enjoyed it immensely;

Michelle Peckham reviews Teresa Solana's A Not So Perfect Crime concluding that it's "a fascinating, amusing and very entertaining crime novel";

Maxine Clarke reviews The Darkest Room by International Dagger nominee, Johan Theorin and calls it "a wonderful book"

and Pat Austin has mixed feelings about Peter Tickler's Blood on the Cowley Road the first in an Oxford set police procedural series.

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

Premiere: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (film)

Thanks to publishers Quercus, yesterday, Maxine (Petrona) and I, with some familiar faces from crime fiction reviewing joined several hundred horror fans to watch the English-subtitled premiere of Millennium I: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Film 4 Frightfest in Leicester Square.

An excellent job has been made of getting to the heart of the book, cutting out some of the romantic subplots and making the most of its two main characters Mikael Blomkvist and Lizbeth Salander.

What's left is a taught thriller/who-dunnit with the pair working together to find out what happened to Harriet Vanger who disappeared, thought killed, over 40 years ago. Though long, the story never drags and the performances are superb.

The locations matched well with my visualisation from reading the book with one exception - the size of the bridge that isolates the island. In the film it's huge and I had imagined a little humpback bridge!

I'd be interested to hear what people who haven't read the book already thought about it. The audience seemed to enjoy the film and were rooting for Salander in a couple of the more horrific scenes where she takes her revenge.

The trailer can be found here on IMDB.

More on the series of films can be found on the production company, Yellow Bird's page.

The film will be released in the UK next Spring.

Also, read the Euro Crime review of the book, here.

Handy (cover theme - non crime fiction books)

This cover of Twilight's been around since 2007, the other two are recent/upcoming publications:

It's Going to be Murder on 6 September

Get the recorder ready as there's likely to be a clash on 6 September between:

ITV: Julia McKenzie in Marple: A Pocketful of Rye at 8pm

and

BBC3: And Then There Were None Harper's Island (time TBC)

Reminder about Harper's Island:

Brand new to BBC Three, Harper's Island brings murder and mystery to the channel. The series pushes the boundaries of traditional television with frightening, tense and exciting drama that will keep the viewer riveted.

A secluded island off the coast of Seattle is the scene for a week-long wedding celebration attended by a group of family and friends. But amidst the festivities, a murderer begins claiming victims one by one, transforming the occasion into a terrifying struggle for survival.

Over 13 episodes, Harper's Island will unravel a twisted tale of murder and revenge as these wedding guests – each with their own motives, fears and desires – attempt to find the killer (or killers) before they strike again .

Events in the West Midlands 2 - Warwick Words

I had a tip-off on my facebook page about this one, Warwick Words held 1-4 October 2009. I think these are the only crime fiction related events:

An Evening with Val McDermid
Saturday 3 October
Bridge House Theatre
8.00pm

Join International bestselling crime writer, Val McDermid, who has sold over one million copies in the UK alone and over 10 million copies worldwide. Her novels have been translated into twenty six languages across the globe and she has won numerous international and UK literary awards.

The Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series has enjoyed tremendous success including being adapted for the award-winning ITV drama, Wire in The Blood for six series. Fever of the Bone is the latest exhilarating instalment of the escapades of the clinical psychologist and Detective Chief Inspector and yet again takes the crime fighting duo into uncharted waters.

Val McDermid has become our leading pathologist of everyday evil… The subtle orchestration of terror is masterful The Guardian.

Tickets: £10.00
(£8.00 concessions)

plus extras later in the month:

Making Crime Pay

Saturday 10 October
St Mary’s Church - The Vestry
2.00pm - 5.00pm

‘Making Crime Pay’ - A hands-on workshop led by successful crime writer Kate Charles.

Kate reveals a few of the secrets of getting published - but come prepared to work hard. Bring a notebook and a pen!

Tickets: £15.00

There are only 12 places available for this workshop so please book in advance through our box office 01926 776438

Corpses in the Cloister

Saturday 10 October
St Mary’s Church
7.30pm

Join clerical crime writer Kate Charles as she explores the unlikely links between the church and crime fiction, visiting everything from ordained detectives to crime novels set in cathedrals

Kate Charles, a former Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Barbara Pym Society, is the author of eleven crime novels set against the colourful historical backdrop of the Collegiate church. Her current series features London curate Callie Anson and explores issues ranging from gay bishops to the role of women in the church. Kate’s latest novel, Deep Waters, is a fascinating and timely look at celebrity culture.

Fundraising event for the church.

Tickets: £7.50

Refreshments will be provided.

Tickets will only be available from the St Mary’s Church shop, Warwick Books or by calling 01926 773637. Limited tickets will be available on the door.

Quoth the Raven (Cover Theme) II

Part two of my big birds on covers theme, this time the same cover has been used, though slightly differently:



Deep Waters by Kate Charles was published last March.
Seaweed in the Soup by Stanley Evans is published in February.

Events in the West Midlands 1 - Throckmorton Literary Festival

The second Throckmorton Literary Festival, held at Coughton Court in Worcester, takes place between 18-20 September. There're many well known authors attending and though there seems to be a history bias, there are also a few crime fiction authors appearing:

18th September
14:30 Stella Rimington, Present Danger

19th September
16:45 Leigh Russell, Cut Short

20th September
14:30 Jessica Mann, Godrevy Light (promoting a non-crime fiction book)

16:00 Laura Thompson, Agatha Christie: An English Mystery

Individual events are £8, day tickets are £35. Other authors appearing include Kate Adie, Mavis Cheek, David Starkey and Alison Weir. The full programme can be found here.

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

I have just posted a review of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher over on my Teenage Fiction blog. This is a psychological thriller revolving around the after-effects of a suicide. This one's aimed at older teens and upwards. It's very gripping and extremely thought provoking.

It's just out in the UK (and in paperback)

Read the review here.

New Reviews: Burke, Cleeves, Creed, Harper, Monaldi & Sorti, Sington

There are three competitions running this month; the prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

I review one of this month's competition prizes, The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke;

Pat Austin reviews the paperback edition of White Nights by Ann Cleeves the second in the excellent Shetland Quartet;

Maxine Clarke reviews Suffer the Children by Adam Creed the first in a London based police procedural series;

Michelle Peckham reviews the globe-trotting thriller, The Book of Secrets by Tom Harper;

Laura Root reviews the controversial Imprimatur by Monaldi and Sorti

and Norman Price writes very favourably of The Einstein Girl by Philip Sington.

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

Review: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke

I've now reviewed this on my Reading Teenage Fiction blog though this title can equally be classed as an adult book.

Read the review here.

Win a copy on the Euro Crime website.

Jar City on Sundance Channel

The Sundance Channel is showing Jar City tonight and Saturday:

Wednesday August 19 at 11PM
Sunday August 23 at 2AM

Set amongst the cheerless outlying neighborhoods of Reykjavik, Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur's taut, cerebral police thriller from a novel by Arnaldur Indridason is additionally an eerie exercise in sense of place. Depressive detective Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) is investigating what he describes as "a typical Icelandic murder: messy and pointless." However, linkages soon arise, prompting him to delve into the mysterious death of a little girl two decades earlier.

The FAQ explains more about the Sundance Channel and how to get it (ie via satellite television and cable television).

Competition reminder

There won't be any reviews this weekend as I'm away for a couple of days, however I leave you with a reminder that 5 copies of each of these books can be won via the Euro Crime competition page:




If you have an interest in young adult/teenage fiction then you might like to take a look at my other blog Teenage Fiction for All Ages where today's Sunday Salon post summarises the previous week's posts.

OT: Fox in a Box III

Fox's penthouse apartment is sinking closer to the floor, with the returning of several Tesco's fruit boxes, however a late addition of a parcel box has left him still a couple of feet off the ground.

From this last weekend:


to:

News page updated

The Euro Crime News page (currently hosted on FriendFeed) has been updated with links to reviews from the last week.

Visit it here.

Can't keep a good cover down

A few months ago I posted an example of where the same cover has been used on three titles. I've now found a fourth use, though this time it's been modified a tad:













Update: and in a similar vein & 2) a cover from another country (July 10):

Inspectors Zen and Banks on the TV

From The Guardian

The production company behind drama Wallander hopes to replicate the success of the Swedish detective by launching two new television detectives on BBC1 and ITV1.

Left Bank Pictures, run by The Queen producer Andy Harries, has had scripts commissioned for three Aurelio Zen mysteries, written by the late Michael Dibdin, for BBC1 and one Inspector Banks drama, written by Peter Robinson, for ITV1.

The Zen mysteries are set in Italy and feature a middle-aged detective who in the early novels lives with his mother in a Rome apartment.

Ratking is being adapted by Peter Berry, Vendetta by Simon Burke and Dead Lagoon by Patrick Harbinson.

Robinson's 2002 novel Aftermath – one of 16 Inspector Banks mysteries – is being adapted by Robert Murphy for transmission next year.

The film will feature detective chief inspector Alan Banks, who lives in the Yorkshire town of Eastvale. Divorced with two children, he works from the local police station overlooking the town's busy market square.

It is hoped the two detective mysteries could become long-running franchises.

Another first book in a series receives translation

Recently we've had Vargas's first Adamsberg (The Chalk Circle Man) and Nesser's first Van Veteeren (The Mind's Eye) published after a number of later entries in the series have been translated. And now it's the turn of DCI Erik Winter...Penguin US are publishing Ake Edwardson's first Winter novel - Death Angels on 29 September.

Synopsis from amazon.com: A long-time number one bestseller in his native Sweden, Åke Edwardson’s profile was conspicuously raised when his novel Frozen Tracks was chosen as a finalist for a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Until now, however, the novel that launched Edwardson’s critically acclaimed Erik Winter series has never been available in the United States. With a new series translator who fully captures Edwardson’s signature atmospheric style, Death Angels is America’s introduction to Sweden’s youngest Chief Inspector as he teams up with Scotland Yard to solve the mysterious parallel killings of young British and Swedish tourists. Richly evocative of mid-nineties South London and Gothenburg, Sweden, Death Angels is a brilliant opening to a mesmerizing series that has become a phenomenon in international crime fiction.

The translator for Death Angels is Ken Schubert. Laurie Thompson has translated the three already available. My bibliography for Ake Edwardson is a little out of date as I hadn't realised this was #1 in the series.

OT: Another Doctor Who audio book to be read by David Tennant

I've got the latest edition of Doctor Who Magazine and it reveals that "the next 'audio original' title, The Day of the Troll by Simon Messingham" is to be read by David Tennant. This is his first since Pest Control.

The audio book will be released on 8 October 2009.

Synopsis: When the Doctor arrives on Earth in the far future, he is horrified to find the planet beset by famine and starvation. England is a barren wasteland, and scientists are desperately seeding the ground to make the crops grow again. But now it seems that something even worse is happening. Karl Baring, the owner of research facility The Grange, has been snatched away in the middle of the night. His sister Katy was with him when he vanished, but is now in catatonic shock - so it is up to the Doctor, with the help of the scientists at The Grange, to investigate. What is lurking under the old bridge, and why is it preying on people? The Doctor must find out, before it strikes again...

Reviews: Cordy, Edwardson, Franklin, Sapper, White, Winspear

There are three competitions running this month; the prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews, which stick a bit closer to home this time round:

Michelle Peckham reviews the mass market paperback edition of The Source by Michael Cordy summing it up as "one for the beach";

Maxine Clarke reviews the paperback edition of Frozen Tracks by Ake Edwardson writing that it "a satisfying read, both in terms of plot and characterisation";

Norman Price reviews Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin (apa Grave Goods in the US). He finds lead character Adelia "a beguiling heroine in a fascinating historical setting" (Win a copy this month);

Rik Shepherd is unimpressed by Bulldog Drummond by Sapper wondering why it's such a 'classic';

Amanda Gillies reports that it's business as usual in Neil White's strong Garrett/McGanity series, of which Last Rites is the third

and Terry Halligan praises Jacqueline Winspear highly for her latest Maisie Dobbs outing, Among the Mad.

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

The Girl Who Played With Fire at the Library

I was just looking to see if my local library had a paperback edition of Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire as they bulk buy the best-sellers, and of the county's 54 copies, 51 are out on loan:


(Compared with 10 out of 63 copies still available of The Host by Stephenie Meyer).

Poll results on International Dagger 2009

I'm removing from the side-bar, the poll results about the International Dagger speculation (the winner was Fred Vargas with The Chalk Circle Man) but I've recorded a screen shot for posterity:

OT: Fox in a Box II

You can't keep a cat out of a box. These temporary storage devices, used during the great new boiler adventure are now awaiting return to Tesco but are still proving useful for the cats to play with:


He doesn't have to jump in/out though, as there's a short cut via the table:


You can see Fox in a Box part I here.

One cover leads to another

This edition of Disgrace was published in 1999. The Crossroads was published in January and Summertime is out in September.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden

I've recently reviewed the young adult book, The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant, on my other blog.

Though the protagonist is only 10/11 at the time of the events that occur, it is her older 17/18 year-old self recounting events.

It's a crime novel, set in Germany and if you liked the chapters narrated by ten-year-old Kate Meaney in Catherine O Flynn's What Was Lost, you will probably enjoy this one.

I certainly did and found it to be well written with an engaging lead and the German traditions added to the interest.

My review can be found here.

Publishing Deal - Christobel Kent

Christobel Kent's A Time of Mourning has recently been published in the UK and Publishers Lunch brings details of a US deal:

Christobel Kent's A TIME OF MOURNING, the first in a new series featuring an ex-cop turned PI, to Daniela Rapp at Minotaur, in a nice deal, in a two-book deal, for publication in Spring 2010

Simon Mayo's Book Review Show

The latest edition of the Simon Mayo's Book Review podcast - hosted by Richard Bacon this week - reviews The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi -the 'true crime' story of Italy's notorious serial killer. Interestingly, none of the panel had heard about the story before. The Euro Crime review, posted in January, is here. One of the senior policeman in the case, Michele Giuttari, now writes a crime series set in Florence and his bibliography is here.

The books podcast can be downloaded or listened to here.

Reviews: Billingham, Blake, Bolton, Cotterill, Fitzgerald, Parot & New Competitions

Three new competitions for August, prizes are: The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke, Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin and Blood Law by Steven Hague (some restrictions apply).

Here are this week's reviews:

Tom Thorne is back in Mark Billingham's Blood Line, which reviewer Craig Sisterson calls a "taut tour de force";

Rome in AD 608 is the setting for Conspiracies of Rome by Richard Blake reviewed by Terry Halligan who found it to be "one of the most atmospheric historical novels I've read in years";

Amanda Gillies calls S J Bolton's Awakening "superb" despite her snake phobia;

Michelle Peckham reviews Dagger Winner Colin Cotterill's fourth Laos mystery Anarchy and Old Dogs concluding it's "an entertaining read that is thoroughly recommended";

Maxine Clarke has mixed views on My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald

and Laura Root has another enjoyable excursion into pre-revolutionary France in the third of the Nicolas Le Floch series by Jean-François Parot, The Phantom of Rue Royale.

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

Amazon Lists Updated

I've just updated the following lists I have on amazon.co.uk:

French crime novels published in 2008/9/10

Italian crime novels published in 2008/9/10

Scandinavian Crime Fiction published in 2009

You can see how many more Scandinavian crime novels are published than French and Italian because I do a list a year, rather than for a range of years.

OT: Tom Baker's back as Doctor Who

Great news from the BBC this morning. Tom Baker is reprising his role as Doctor Who for five linked audio dramas:

For the first time in 28 years, Tom Baker is returning to his role as the Fourth Doctor in a series of five thrilling audio adventures from BBC Audiobooks. Doctor Who: Hornets’ Nest is written by the acclaimed Paul Magrs and stars Tom alongside a cast including Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey and Rula Lenska as the Hornet Queen.

The brand new series sees the Doctor on fighting form as he comes up against an enemy of unimaginable power and horrific intent.

The first story, The Stuff of Nightmares, will be available to buy from 3rd September 2009 priced at £9.78, with the remaining four stories due for release on:

2. The Dead Shoes – 8th October

3. The Circus of Doom – 5th November

4. A Sting in the Tale – 3rd December

5. Hive of Horror – 3rd December

Synopsis of The Stuff of Nightmares: ‘Wanted: retired army Captain for light household duties and fireside companionship. Must tolerate mild eccentricity and strong scientific advice. Knowledge of Giant Maggots, Super Intelligent Spiders and Prehistoric Monsters a positive boon.’

Responding to an advert apparently worded for him alone, Captain Mike Yates (retired) is reunited with a ghost from the past. But why has the Doctor, that mysterious traveller in Time and Space, sent for his former UNIT acquaintance? Trapped by a horde of vicious creatures in an apparently innocuous English country cottage, the two old friends are on the brink of an enormous adventure. As the Doctor relates his recent escapades, it becomes clear to Mike that they – and the Earth at large – are facing an enemy of unimaginable power and horrific intent.

The nightmare is only just beginning… With Tom Baker as the Doctor, Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, Susan Jameson as Mrs Wibbsey and Daniel Hill as Percy Noggins, The Stuff of Nightmares is the first of five linked stories written by the acclaimed Paul Magrs.

Listen to a sample of The Stuff of Nightmares at the BBC Shop website.

Synopses of all the episodes can be found on the Hornets' Nest website.

OT: Doctor Who Specials - new trailers

A new trailer for The Waters of Mars is now on the BBC website.

A very wobbly recording of the teaser trailer for The End of Time (Christmas Special 2009) shown at Comic Con is now on YouTube.

OT: Go Swiftly (cover theme)

New Reviews: Camilleri, Cross, Jungstedt, Liang, Neville, Thompson

It's the last week to enter the competition to win a copy of My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald (open to all).

Here are this week's reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews August Heat by Andrea Camilleri, the tenth in the series and she thinks it may not be the best one to start with;

Craig Sisterson reviews the paperback edition of Burial by Neil Cross concluding that the author "does weave an engrossing tale that is well worth reading";

Amanda Brown reviews the paperback edition of Unspoken by Mari Jungstedt saying that it is "a very sinister and complex book";

Going a bit farther afield than normal, Laura Root reviews the paperback edition of Paper Butterfly by Diane Wei Liang, the second in this Beijing set PI series, calling it "a little gem of a book";

Mike Ripley reviews Stuart Neville's 'Northern Ireland noir' debut The Twelve stating that it is a "frighteningly assured first novel"

and Geoff Jones reviews the first in the Bella Wallis series, The Widow's Secret by Brian Thompson, set in the 19th Century.

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

Harrogate Crime Writing Festival news

Our woman in Harrogate (crimeficreader) reports that the programme chair for 2011 will be Dreda Say Mitchell.

Also, the quiz team she was in came third. Congratulations!

Kandidaten becomes The Candidate

About a year after I blogged about the Danish noir film Kandidaten, an American remake has been announced. From Variety:

Sam Worthington will star in Summit Entertainment's remake of Danish thriller "The Candidate," with Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen producing through their Temple Hill Entertainment banner.

Beau Willimon will pen the adaptation, which follows an aspiring lawyer who wakes up in a hotel room with scant memories of the woman he met the night before, only to discover she's dead in the bathroom -- and he's about to be blackmailed for her murder.

Next Wallander on BBC4

Episode 5 of the Swedish Wallander series will be on Monday 27th at 9pm and next Thursday (30th) at 10.45pm on BBC4:

The Overdose

When an abandoned baby is found in a car, Kurt Wallander oversees a large operation to find the missing father. Meanwhile, Linda is visiting a school all week to educate the pupils about the dangers of drugs. When a girl at the school has an overdose, the team begin to see connections between the two cases.

Episode 4, The Brothers, can be watched via iplayer for a few more days.

NB. The first two episodes, which were shown last year, Before the Frost and Mastermind are episodes 1 and 2 in the UK order but 1 and 6 in the Swedish order (according to Wikipedia) or 1 and 7 (according to Inspector-Wallander.org).

NB2. I'm informed that Rolf Lassgård who starred in an earlier series, which was based on the nine Wallander books, is the face of Wallander to most Swedes.

Publishing Deal - Henning Mankell

No surprises here - Harvill Secker will be publishing the new Wallander novel:

...The Troubled Man from Anneli Hoier at the Leonhardt & Hoier literary agency and will publish it in hardback in February 2011.

The Troubled Man tells the story of a retired naval officer who disappears during his daily walk in a forest near Stockholm. It is described as a "deeply personal" case for Wallander, because the missing man is the father-in-law of Wallander's daughter Linda. Clues point back to the Cold War, and to right-wing extremist groups, said the publisher.

Mankell said: "I really thought that I had written my last novel about Wallander, but then I had this distinct feeling that there was one more story to be told."

Read the whole article at The Bookseller.

Breaking news...Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Winner

Our man in Harrogate...twitters that Mark Billingham has won this year's Crime Novel of the Year for Death Message.

The list of contenders can be found here.

Iceland's rising stock

Arnaldur Indridason and Yrsa Sigurdardottir have been popular for a while now and it seems that Iceland is becoming the place to set books. A few days ago the news came out that Michael Ridpath is writing a series set in Iceland which is followed today by news of another new series from debut author Quentin Bates:

Constable and Robinson has bought the rights to a debut novel by crime fiction author Quentin Bates in a two-book deal.

Frozen Assets is the first title in the deal and will be published in 2011. The book is set in Iceland with Sergeant Gunnhildur, a police woman in her thirties as the central character. The novel starts on the eve of the financial collapse of the Icelandic banks. Bates has begun the second book, but it is yet to be titled.

Bates said: "I knew plenty about the country I wanted to set the story in but learning about police work is a whole new world for me, having never been nicked for anything more serious than breaking a speed limit."

Read the whole article at The Bookseller.

No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency on BBC4 (repeat)

The pilot episode of the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency will be repeated on BBC4 on Sunday at 7.15pm. The series will also be repeated (though I'm not sure when yet).


I borrowed the above image from an interesting interview with the the show's set decorator at designspongeonline.

Publishing Deal - Peter James

Peter James has just signed a three book deal with Pan Macmillan. The details at The Bookseller:

The first book in the new contract, Dead Like You, will be published in June 2010, with the second and third following at yearly intervals.

In a separate deal in the US, St Martins Press crime thriller imprint Minotaur has also negotiated a contract for the same three books. James has not been published in the US since Carroll & Graf launched the Roy Grace series in 2005/6.

Read the rest of the article at The Bookseller.

Read the reviews of the first five books in the Roy Grace series at the Euro Crime website.

Murder at Mansfield Park (publishing deal)

From The Bookseller:

The deal for Murder at Mansfield Park, by Lynn Shepherd, was negotiated via Ben Mason at the Conville Walsh Agency for an undisclosed sum. The title will be published as a B-format paperback next April, and will include reading group discussion points.

In contrast with the original story, the character Fanny Price is "ambitious, scheming and relentlessly focused", while Mary Crawford "suffers great indignities from her mean neighbour". Shepherd explained: "What intrigues me about Mansfield Park is how unlike Jane Austen it actually is. One of the reasons so many readers are dissatisfied with the novel Austen did write is that they find her heroine at best insipid, and at worst, downright irritating."

Simon Petherick, managing director of Beautiful Books, described the book as "fantastic" and "tremendous fun". He added: "The really good thing about it is that linguistically, it's very accurate, and she picks up on all the key themes that appeared in the original . . . But whereas Fanny is quite a pain in the arse in Austen's version, Lynn's Fanny is an outrageous gold-digger."

When a murder takes place, mid-way through the story, the novel turns into a "literary version of Agatha Christie." Petherick said: "You cannot work out which character would, or could, commit the murder – everyone who has read it so far has failed to guess who did it."

Read the rest of the article here.

OT: Doctor Who's new outfit

Doesn't he look smart:



According to the BBC: "The Time Lord's new look consists of tweed jacket, bow tie, rolled up trousers and black boots." Read the rest of the article here.

New Reviews: Cain, Frimansson, Jones, MacBride, Mariani, Nadel

A new competition is running (open to all!); win a copy of My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald.

Here are this week's globe-trotting reviews:

Paul Blackburn reviews Assassin by Tom Cain, the third of the 'Sam Carver' thrillers;

Maxine Clarke reviews Island of the Naked Women by Inger Frimansson writing that it is "a strong candidate for my "best of" list for this year";

Laura Root reviews The Salati Case by Tobias Jones the first of a new PI series set in Italy;

Craig Sisterson reviews Blind Eye by Stuart MacBride the fifth in the DS McRae series set in Aberdeen;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Doomsday Prophecy by Scott Mariani which is the third in the Ben Hope, ex-SAS, series

and Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the Turkish Cetim Ikman series from Barbara Nadel - River of the Dead - which is now out in paperback.

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

OT: Cat in Cupboard

I store my sewing and knitting stuff in a cupboard with no shelves so I thought I'd appropriate all the empty boxes I'd got from Tesco's to store my books in, whilst the trauma of the new boiler was being played out. So a temporary (?) shelving system has been introduced - one that had to be sniffed and inspected as soon as my back was turned:





I'm surprised the whole lot didn't fall out when she jumped in, it's about 5ft high!

Next Wallander on BBC4

Episode 4 of the Swedish Wallander series will be on Monday 20th at 9pm and next Thursday (23rd) at 10.35pm on BBC4:

The Brothers

The army are in Ystad all week for a training exercise, and Wallander is called to the site of a grim and premeditated double murder, with emotional resonance for Kurt. As the murders continue, Wallander and his team investigate deeper and are forced to concede there may be a link with the troops.

Episode 3, The Village Idiot, can be watched via iplayer for a few more days.

Dramas on BBC1 in 2010

From Broadcastnow:

Silence, is a 4 x 60-minute coming of age drama from Company Pictures, which was penned by Fiona Seres. The plot focuses on an 18-year-old deaf girl who unwittingly witnesses a murder and becomes the key witness.

There is a new detective on the beat from a writer on Spooks and The Fixer. Luther (working title), will show detective John Luther struggling with his personal demons while attempting to track down a killer each week. In a twist on the traditional format, the killer’s identity will be known to the audience. The 6 x 60-minute series has been written by Neil Cross and will be produced by BBC Drama Productions.

Sherlock Holmes will return to the screen in a new 3 x 90-minute series, created by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gattis and made by Hartswood Films.

A 5 x 60-minute series called The Deep, set in the Arctic. Written by Simon Donald, it focusses on the crew in an oceanographers submarine far below the ice who become trapped with no power, limited oxygen and no communication after catastrophe strikes. But it soon becomes apparent they are not alone.

NB. Neil Cross, author of Burial is behind Luther.

Publishing Deal - Michael Ridpath

Michael Ridpath, known for his financial thrillers is to write a series set in Iceland. Details in today's Bookseller:

Corvus Books has signed a deal for two new books from Michael Ridpath. Nicolas Cheetham bought world English rights from Oliver Munson of Blake Friedmann Literary Agency.

The books are part of a new series set in Iceland and the first title will be Fire and Ice. The book introduces Magnus Johnson, a homicide detective who becomes involved in a murder investigation after the body of a university professor is found. Corvus will publish Fire and Ice in spring 2010.

Cheetham said: "Fire and Ice opens an ambitious and ingenious crime series, which binds Iceland’s landscape and history, secrets and superstitions in a strikingly original plot that will span several volumes. It is an exercise in storytelling genius from an established international bestseller."

Breaking news...Dagger winners

Via Ali on Twitter:

International Dagger - The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
Dagger in the Library - Colin Cotterill
Short Story Dagger - Sean Chercover

I am surprised as I really struggled with The Chalk Circle Man...

International Dagger - Poll Results

The winner of the International Dagger will be announced tomorrow and I'll be monitoring Twitter tomorrow night to hopefully get the results.

The polls on this blog have now closed and the winners are...

There is a tie for the book that people *wanted* to win between Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who Played With Fire and Jo Nesbo's The Redeemer - 46 votes (33%) each.

But The Girl Who Played With Fire wins outright in the poll for which book people *think* will win with 52 votes (54%) with The Redeemer in second with 26 votes (27%).

Last year no-one voted for the eventual winner, but at least this year there are votes for every book in both polls.

New Reviews: Bale, Bradby, Child, Fossum, Franklin, McKinty & New Competition

A new competition is now up and running (open to all!); win a copy of My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald.

This week's new reviews:

Paul Blackburn reviews Skin and Bones by Tom Bale;

Terry Halligan reviews Blood Money by Tom Bradby;

Maxine Clarke reviews Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child;

Maxine also reviews The Water's Edge by Karin Fossum;

Pat Austin reviews the paperback edition of The Death Maze by Ariana Franklin (US: The Serpent's Tale)

and Michelle Peckham reviews Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty.

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

Another Copycat Cover

This edition of Widow's Walk came out in 2002, Grant McKenzie's Switch has just been published in the UK.

Quoth the Raven (Cover Theme)

Well one of them might be a raven...certainly a couple seem to be from the corvid family.

Publishing Deal - Charlie Charters

From The Bookseller:

Hodder & Stoughton has signed a two-book deal with debut thriller writer Charlie Charters, for an undisclosed sum.

The first book, entitled Bolt Action, will be published in July next year as a paperback original, with the second - as-yet-untitled- following a year later.

Set on a plane - where, since the 9/11 attacks, the door between the cockpit and the cabin must be locked - Bolt Action tells the story of what happens when the pilot and crew have all been poisoned.

By chance, a renegade group of British ex-soldiers, fleeing the attentions of MI5, are on board.

Hodder described the novel as "the ultimate terrorist spectacular, played out as the world watches, blogs and tweets", which would appeal to fans of Tom Clancy, Jack Higgins, Duncan Falconer, Tom Cain and Andy McNab.

Read the whole article here.

Wallander on BBC4

BBC4 has just repeated the two episodes of the Swedish version of Wallander that were previously shown last December. These can still be watched via iplayer for a few more days: Before the Frost and Mastermind.

A new episode, The Village Idiot, is to be shown next Monday (13th July) at 9pm:

When a harmless former asylum resident holds up a bank for money and then blows himself up, Wallander, Linda and the Ystad team are forced to dig for leads to find reasons. Who could have persuaded him to do it, and why? Was the explosion an accident? The answers are unexpected.

This is listed as episode 3 of 13 so fingers crossed that the rest of the series will be shown. The Village Idiot is repeated on Thursday 16th July at 10.30pm.

Before the Frost is available on DVD with English subtitles, but not cheaply:

More African crime fiction - Mike Nicol

I mentioned a few months ago a few titles set in Africa and then added Margie Orford's series. The Bookseller announced today that Old Street have bought three Mike Nicols books:

Old Street Publishing has bought a trio of crime books by South African author Mike Nicol.

Managing director Ben Yarde-Buller acquired world English rights from literary agent Tina Betts at Andrew Mann.

The first book in the deal will be called Payback and is due to be published in spring 2010. The title will be set in Cape Town at the turn of the 21st Century with two main characters who become embroiled in drugs and violence.

The two following books are yet untitled and will be stand alone titles, but will be linked by the same characters.

I don't know whether the 'turn of the 21st Century' bit is a misprint as that's quite a futuristic setting.

More Jack Frost books (not by R D Wingfield)

News from the Bookseller:

Transworld has signed a deal to publish two new Jack Frost novels, written on behalf of the estate of R. D Wingfield, who died in 2007.

Sarah Turner, editorial Director, acquired the UK & Commonwealth rights from Philip Patterson at Marjacq Scripts.

Writing under the pseudonym James Henry, the books will be co-authored by James Gurbutt, who has just joined Constable & Robinson to found a new imprint, and Harvill Secker author Henry Sutton.

They will be prequels to the bestselling series written by Wingfield, which inspired the series A Touch Of Frost, and the first will be published by Bantam Press in early 2011.

Read the whole article here.

The Euro Crime bibliography for R D Wingfield is here.

Bodies in the Bookshop - 21st July

Just a reminder of one of the many excellent events taking place at Heffers Bookshop in Cambridge:

Bodies in the Bookshop

Tuesday July 21st 6.00pm

Join us for a glass of wine and make murder your business at our annual crime fiction extravaganza for an evening free from speeches and readings - a great chance to meet both debut and established crime writers including:

Tom Bale, Stephen Booth, Alison Bruce, Maureen Carter, Clem Chambers, Cassandra Clark, Mary Andrea Clarke, Barbara Cleverly, Nick Connell, Adam Creed, Judith Cutler, R. S. Downie, Nick Drake, Jeremy Duns, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Roger Jon Ellory, Stewart Evans, Jane Finnis, Ariana Franklin, Meg Gardiner, Tony Gheeraert, Dolores Gordon Smith, Ann Granger, Steve Hague, Tarquin Hall, Matt Hilton, Veronica Heley, Kaye C. Hill, Suzette Hill, Seth Hunter, Jim Kelly, Christobel Kent, Deryn Lake, Patrick Lennon, James McCreet, George Mann, Edward Marston, Andrew Martin, Rose Melikan, Janet Neel, Malcolm Pryce, Ann Purser, Mike Ripley, David Roberts, Imogen Robertson, Leigh Russell, Alex Rutherford, E. V. Seymour, Stav Sherez, Harry Sidebottom, Yrsa Sigurdartottir, Roz Southey, Rebecca Tope, L. C. Tyler, Nicola Upson, Dan Waddell, Michael Walters, Paul Waters, John Wilcox and more.

This is a ticketed event ONLY. Tickets, value £5.00, can be obtained from the Ground Floor Payment Desk at Heffers Bookshop, 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge or by contacting Richard Reynolds 01223 568532 or by email on literature@heffers.co.uk

News page updated

There won't be any new reviews this weekend due to the house being in chaos; the gas people are coming tomorrow to begin fitting a new boiler and half my book collection has been packed up and my work desk dismantled so I'm left with a large laptop on my knees in the living room. Not very easy to use (arm already aches from using the mouse on the armrest!) but I'll try and keep up :).

I have managed to update the Euro Crime News-page on FriendFeed.

Normal service will hopefully resume next weekend though the unpacking might not have finished.

I'm using Twitter a bit more (see side-bar) but only at a beginner's level.

Rupert Penry-Jones - Simon Mayo show

I haven't listened to it yet so I don't know if anything relevant to Euro Crime is being discussed, but today's Daily Mayo podcast contains an interview with former Spooks star, Rupert Penry Jones. Download or listen at the Radio 5 website.

Inspector Sejer is back

Karin Fossum's The Water's Edge is published today and after a Sejer-free year, the tall detective is back...

Synopsis:

Walking through the woods one warm September day, Reinhardt and Kristine Ris pass a man who is in a state of agitation. Unusually in a small town, he does not return Kristine’s smile and drives off in a hurry. Near the end of their walk they make a terrible discovery: lying in a cluster of trees is the lifeless body of a young boy. It is a moment that will change their lives for ever.

Inspector Sejer is called to the scene, but can find no immediate cause of death. As the weeks go by, the appeal for the man seen in the woods to come forward remains unanswered. A once peaceful community is deeply shaken and the children lose the sense of complete freedom they had enjoyed. Then a second boy goes missing.

Click on the widget below to go to a 28 page extract: