One Book - One Cover - Two Titles II

Well these two are almost the same cover. The one on the left is the UK edition which came out in May 2009. The one on the right is the US edition due out in July 2010.

A Time of Mourning/The Drowning River by Christobel Kent is the first of the series, set in Florence and featuring PI Sandro Cellini.













US Blurb:

Meet Sandro Cellini, Florence’s answer to Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti.

One wet November in Florence, the grieving widow of an eminent Jewish architect comes to visit Sandro Cellini, good husband, disgraced ex-policeman, and recently turned PI, to ask him to investigate her husband’s suicide. Cellini takes her on out of sympathy, although this first case makes a downbeat start to his new career. There seems no doubt that Claudio Gentileschi, a Holocaust survivor and lifelong depressive found drowned on a bleak stretch of the River Arno, did take his own life, and initially Cellini imagines that his only duty is to support the widow through her time of mourning.

But as Cellini doggedly retraces the architect’s last hours through the worst rains since the devastating floods of 1966, a young Englishwoman is found to have gone missing from the city’s community of hard-drinking, high-living art students, and Sandro’s search turns abruptly into something grimmer and more urgent than he could have imagined, as he uncovers a network of greed and corruption that is hidden under a veneer of tradition and refinement.

The Drowning River is a spot-on, atmospheric new mystery, the first in a series featuring Cellini.

Laura Wilson's first Stratton book received a similar treatment.

New Competition time

I've just added a new competition to the website. The prize is Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth and it's open to UK residents (only).

I've set up a google docs form for people to submit their entries. I hope it works ok. The form, which includes a "tricky" question, can be found here.

There're a few days left to enter the Daisychain competition, also UK only.

UK release dates for Millennium films

Quercus have sent out a press release today with the eagerly awaited dates for the release of the films The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest:

STIEG LARSSON’S MILLENNIUM TRILOGY RETURNS

TO IGNITE UK CINEMAS THIS AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE – In cinemas 27 August

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNETS’ NEST – In cinemas 26 November

Hot on the heels of the successful UK theatrical release of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in March, Lisbeth Salander will return to cinemas in THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE on 27 August.

Can't wait to see them though tackling Hornets' must have been a challenge!

A Talent of Translators at LBF

Maxine aka Petrona and I met up for day two of The London Bookfair. We weren't expecting the panel about South African crime fiction to go ahead but we went along anyway and luckily for us, Deon Meyer had been in Europe for a couple of weeks so was able to attend along with Gillian Slovo. The panel was moderated by the new CWA Chair, Tom Harper. After their interesting discussion about crime and crime fiction in the new and old South Africa, we got to shake hands with Deon Meyer and compliment him on Thirteen Hours.

After a pit-stop for coffee we headed back down to the floor and by chance passed the HarperCollins stand where we intercepted one of our favourite translators: Don Bartlett (interviewed on this blog). He brings to English-speaking crime fans, Jo Nesbo, K O Dahl and the most recently translated Gunnar Staalesen. Readers of The Strand magazine will be able to read a non-Harry Hole short story from Jo Nesbo in a future edition. It also sounds like Jo will be back in the country for the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and possibly the Cheltenham Literature Festival. Gunnar Staalesen will be appearing at the Edinburgh Festival in conversation with Ian Rankin. Don says the next Harry Hole book, The Leopard, is around 700 pages. Roll on next March for that one.

Don suggested we go to the translators lounge, and after a detour at PanMacmillan, we did so and exchanged a few words with Ros Schwarz, co-translator of Dominique Manotti's books and Sarah Death editor of Swedish Book Review and were then introduced to Charlotte Barslund, translator of the three most recent (in English) Sejer books by Karin Fossum and Kari Dickson, translator of Anne Holt's Vik & Stubo series and finally we chatted to Anna Paterson who translated Missing by Karin Alvtegen and is now the news editor at Swedish Book Review.

On Monday I made a solo-run to LBF and met Neil Smith, manning the Swedish Arts Council stand with Sarah Death on behalf of the people unable to attend from Sweden. Neil is translating the new Liza Marklund, Red Wolf and also Liza's contribution to The Postcard Killers, co-written with James Patterson.

It was lovely to meet the translators who are responsible for bringing such great crime fiction to a wider audience.

Patterson & Pearson team up

James Patterson is collaborating for the first time with a British writer (after this year's European venture with Liza Marklund for The Postcard Killers). From The Bookseller:

Cornerstone has signed a deal for a collaboration between US author James Patterson and British thriller writer Mark Pearson. It is the first time that Patterson has collaborated with a British author.

Private London will be the second title in a new Patterson series, entitled Private, and will be published in May 2011 by Century, with a paperback to follow from Arrow.

The third in Mark Pearson's DI Jack Delaney series, Death Row, due out in July has a cover quote from Mr Patterson: "A very good writer...Mark Pearson really brings to life the gritty underbelly of London".

DVD release date for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be released on DVD on 12 July. RRP is £19.99. Play.com is listing it at £12.99 at the moment. Will you be buying it? I think I will be unless the film is re-shown when The Girl who played with Fire is released.

More on Stieg Larsson

I picked up a copy of the Quercus catalogue today at the London Book Fair and it has the following publications for the autumn this year relating to Stieg Larsson. For around £50 - a boxed set of the Millennium Trilogy, tr. Reg Keeland, "with an accompanying volume containing background material":

Revised hardback editions, with maps, of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, plus original material.

The fourth volume includes an essay by Eva Gedin, Larsson's publisher, on working with the author; an email correspondence between Larsson and Eva Gedin; an essay by John-Henri Holmberg, placing Stieg Larsson in the context of the resurgence of Scandinavian crime writing; a poster of the best jackets of the Millennium Trilogy from around the world; maps and photographs.

and also Stieg Larsson, My Friend by Kurdo Baksi, tr. Laurie Thompson:

Five years after his death, Stieg Larsson is best known as the author of the Millennium Trilogy, but during his career as a journalist he was a crucial protagonist in the battle against racism and for democracy in Sweden, and one of the founders of the anti-facist magazine Expo. Kurdo Baksi first met Larsson in 1992; it was the beginning of an intense friendship, and a fruitful but challenging working relationship.

In this candid and rounded memoir, Baksi answers the questions a multitude of Larsson's fans have already asked, about his upbringing; the recurring death threats; his insomnia and his vices; his feminism - so evident in his books - and his dogmatism. What was he like as a colleague? Who provided the inspiration for his now-immortal characters (Baksi is one of the few who appears in the trilogy as himself)? Who was Lisbeth Salander?

New Reviews: Camilleri, Krajewski, Mankell, Nesbo & Sjowall & Wahloo

This month's competition:

Win a copy of Daisychain by G J Moffat (UK only)

This week's reviews are all of translated crime fiction:

Maxine Clarke reviews the US edition of Andrea Camilleri's The Wings of the Sphinx, tr. Stephen Sartarelli (the UK edition is out in June);

Laura Root reviews the paperback edition of Marek Krajewski's The End of the World in Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok;

Double Henning Mankell reviews this week, as reviewers Terry Halligan and Michelle Peckham contrast the books of Faceless Killers and The Fifth Woman, both translated by Steven T Murray, with their BBC TV counterparts;

Maxine also reviews Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, tr. Don Bartlett which she says is the best yet

and Terry Halligan enjoyed The Locked Room by Sjowall and Wahloo.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

I'm Loving Angels Instead (Covers)

I'm sure there are more of these but my brain's gone blank at the moment. The hardback of The Lovers by John Connolly was published in 2009 but the paperback edition has dropped the statue theme. Whereas both editions of The Valkyrie Song by Craig Russell feature a stone angel. Ruth Newman's Twisted Wing came out in paperback in February.
Update from comments: Elizabeth George's This Body of Death (US edition)
Update from brain: Frank Tallis's Deadly Communion
Update from MaxCrime catalogue: Hitler's Angel by Kris Rusch (6/10)











Update: US edition of Speak No Evil published in June:

Publishing Deals - Bourne & Russell

A couple more brief reports of publishing deals - for established authors this time:

Quercus has commissioned two new Glasgow thrillers from Craig Russell. (The Bookseller)

and

HarperCollins has signed up three new books from journalist Jonathan Freedland writing as Sam Bourne.

[HarperCollins] said it had been a "superb team effort" to take the novelist "from a standing start to being the UK's bestselling thriller writer with sales of well over one million on TCM in less than five years". (The Bookseller)

Euro Crime quoted on Close-Up

One of Maxine at Petrona's recent posts alerted me to the fact that her review is quoted on the first page of the paperback edition of Esther Verhoef's Close-Up. I popped into the library on the way back from collecting my new glasses this morning and there it was on the quick pick stand:



Interestingly, the library has classed it as "adventure" rather than thriller or crime and Waterstone's shelves it in the fiction not crime section.

Read all of Maxine's review here.

Government Crime

A couple of publishing deals have been announced for former Government employees. Today in The Bookseller:

The Interceptor by Cameron Addicott will be published in paperback on 22nd July, priced £7.99. Addicott was an investigator for HM Customs and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) for 20 years. Addicott worked with fellow undercover Customs officers in the Alpha Projects unit. He intercepted and decoded phone calls, gaining a glimpse into the private lives of notorious criminals

...."It's like a real life version of ‘The Wire' but he's talking about a 90 mile an hour chase around the M25 rather than driving through Los Angeles. Drug busts are taking place in Little Chef rather than somewhere like Boston. The fact that it's written about somewhere close to home makes it exciting."

and on Book2Book:

Rowland White, Publisher at Orion, has acquired debut thriller writer ­– and ex-MI6 field operative ­– Matthew Dunn from agent Luigi Bonomi at LBA in a substantial pre-emptive deal for three books. All three will feature Dunn's charismatic British MI6 operator Will Cochrane.

The first thriller, titled Megiddo after the codename of the book's villain, has the British spy leading a joint US/UK team hunting an Iranian terrorist mastermind before he's able to launch a devastating attack in the West. The pursuit turns out to be a great deal more personal and desperate than Cochrane could ever have imagined.

The books will be published on White's new imprint, launched next year.

The Botticelli Secret

I came across this one via the Read It First programme where you get a sample of a different book each week.

The Botticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato will be published on 6 May in the UK.

Opening line: Florence looks like gold and smells like shit.

Synopsis: Gloriously fresh and vivid, with a deliciously irreverant heroine, The Botticelli Secret is Marina Fiorato’s most ambitious achievement to date. When Luciana Vetra is asked to pose for a painter friend, she doesn’t mind serving as the model for the central figure of Flora in Sandro Botticelli’s masterpiece Primavera. But when the artist dismisses her without payment, she steals an unfinished version of the painting—only to find that someone is ready to kill her to get it back. As friends are murdered around her, Luciana turns to the one man who has never desired her beauty, novice librarian Brother Guido. Fleeing Venice together, Luciana and Guido race through the nine cities of Renaissance Italy, pursued by ruthless foes who are determined to keep them from decoding the painting’s secrets.

Want to read more?: Read the first chapter here (pdf).

Nordic Noir films at ScreenLit

As part of the ScreenLit festival in Nottingham, there will be a Nordic Noir film track. It sounds fabulous and I wish I could go but work and visitors means I'm indisposed.

The programme includes films based on books by Arnaldur Indridason, Karin Fossum, Gunnar Staalesen and Sjöwall & Wahlöö and of course The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Plus a talk by Barry Forshaw on his book about Stieg Larsson: The Man Who Left Too Soon and some Wallander episodes (English and Swedish). The whole programme is here and a pass to all the events is £45.

Publishing Deal - Oliver Harris

The briefest of news from The Bookseller about a new crime series:

Jonathan Cape has bought UK, EU & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) at auction from Greene & Heaton to a new crime series by Oliver Harris.

The two books feature Nick Belsey, a London police detective who has hit rock bottom.­

New Reviews: Fuentes, Lennon, McGilloway, Rees, Shepherd, Tremayne

This month's competitions:

Win the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on Unabridged Audiobooks (UK & Ireland) (closes 16 April)
Win a copy of Daisychain by G J Moffat (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Maxine Clarke gives a 5 star rating to Eugenio Fuentes's At Close Quarters, tr. Martin Schifino;

Terry Halligan enjoyed the page-turner that is Cut Out by Patrick Lennon;

Maxine also says that Brian McGilloway is in top-form with The Rising the fourth in the Devlin series;

Laura Root says that Matt Rees maintains the same high quality even when his sleuth leaves Palestine for a trip to New York in The Fourth Assassin;

Michelle Peckham has mixed views on Lynn Shepherd's Murder at Mansfield Park though she enjoyed it overall

and Amanda Gillies starts her association with Sister Fidelma in the latest paperback - The Dove of Death by Peter Tremayne.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

OT: Foxy catches some Zeds

Having woken us up at 4am, Foxy's been having a sleep this lunchtime:

Trailer - The Poison Tree

Hodder have pointed me to this trailer for Erin Kelly's debut, The Poison Tree which is published in June:

"It is the sweltering summer of 1997, and Karen is a strait-laced, straight-A university student. When she meets the impossibly glamorous Biba, a bohemian orphan who lives in a crumbling old mansion in Highgate with her enigmatic brother Rex, she is soon drawn into their world – but something terrible is about to happen, and someone's going to end up dead.."

The storyline does sound Barbara Vine-like and other comparisons on the blurb include Tana French and Sophie Hannah.

Juli Zeh's new book - cover/title opinions

Until I received an email from a US publicist I hadn't appreciated that Juli Zeh's Dark Matter, tr. Christine Lo is to be published as In Free Fall in the US. So this time, which cover and/or title might attract you to the book? I've also included the two different blurbs below.

UK on the left, US on the right



UK Blurb

Sebastian and Oskar have been friends since their days studying physics at university, when both were considered future Nobel Prize candidates. But their lives took divergent paths, as did their scientific views. Whenever Oskar comes to visit from his prestigious research post in Geneva, there is tension in the air, and it doesn't help their friendship that he feels Sebastian has not lived up to his intellectual capacities, having chosen marriage and fatherhood as an exit strategy. A few days after a particularly heated argument between the two men, Sebastian leaves his son sleeping in the back seat while he goes into a service station. When he returns, the car has disappeared without trace. His phone rings and a voice informs him that in order to get his son back he must kill a man. As Sebastian's life unravels, the only person he can safely reach out to is Oskar. Then Detective Schilf comes on the scene, with a most unorthodox method of uncovering the truth. With intelligence, wit, precision, and grace, Juli Zeh crafts a philosophical thriller which uses the clash of the ideal and the material worlds, the bending of reality, and the search for a definition of time to explore the ideas of guilt and innocence and the infinite configurations of love.

US Blurb

A child is kidnapped but does not know it. One man dies, two physicists fight, and a senior constable falls in love. In the end, everything is different . . . yet exactly the same.” —Prologue

A rising star who has garnered some of Europe’s most important literary prizes, Juli Zeh has established herself as the new master of the philosophical thriller. With In Free Fall, she now takes us on a fast-paced ride through deadly rivalry and love’s infinite configurations.

Against the backdrop of Germany and Switzerland, two physicists begin a dangerous dance of distrust. Friends since their university days, when they were aspiring Nobel Prize candidates, they now interact in an atmosphere of tension, stoked by Oskar’s belief that Sebastian fell into mediocrity by having a family. When Sebastian’s son, Liam, is apparently kidnapped, their fragile friendship is further tested. Entrusted with uncovering the truth, Detective Superintendent Schilf discerns a web of blackmail, while at the same time the reality of his personal life falls into doubt. Unfolding in a series of razor-sharp scenes, In Free Fall is a riveting novel of ideas from a major new literary voice. With the recent success of works in translation, such as Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire, Zeh is poised to take off.

Scandinavian Reading Challenge

Maxine posted about this the other day leading Amy of The Black Sheep Dances to drop me an email at Euro Crime. The Scandinavian Reading Challenge is to read 6 Scandinavian novels from now to the end of the year.

Here's the procedure:

Reading goal:
"Skal" 6 books before year end


Leave a comment to sign up with your email address and goal. Sign up as a follower as well. I'll contact you and provide a badge for your blog if you wish (just ask). Additionally, I'll have a sidebar widget listing participants by their name or blog name.


There will be prizes to all who complete the 6 book challenge. Prizes not selected yet, but most likely a new book by a Scandinavian author. Maybe a jar of herring. Suggestions accepted!

Sign up on The Black Sheep Dances.

Should you need any crime suggestions: reviews and bibliographies of Scandinavian crime writers (that have been published in English) can be found here on the Euro Crime website

New Reviews: Cooper, Harris, Lelic, Meyer, Robertson, Taylor

This month's competitions:

Win the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on Unabridged Audiobooks (UK & Ireland)
Win a copy of Daisychain by G J Moffat (UK only) new

Here are this week's new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Glenn Cooper's The Tenth Chamber;

Michelle Peckham reviews Blueeyedboy by Joanne Harris;

Maxine Clarke reviews A Thousand Cuts (UK: Rupture) by Simon Lelic;

and Maxine also reviews euro crime favourite Deon Meyer's Thirteen Hours, tr. K L Seegers (Jack Bauer eat your heart out);

Terry Halligan reviews Imogen Robertson's Instruments of Darkness set in the 18th Century

and Laura Root reviews the 1930s set At The Chime of a City Clock by D J Taylor.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date, here.

Website updates - April

Doesn't time fly? It's hard to believe the last time I did a major update of the website was December.

As before, I've refreshed a good portion of the Euro Crime website:

The Author Websites page now lists 822 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated.

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1539 authors (7935 titles with links to 1791 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Jussi Adler-Olsen, Fabrice Bourland, Suzanne Bugler, Joyce Cato, Charlie Charters, Roy Chester, Ron Clooney, Donna Fletcher Crow, Matt Dickinson, J A P Duval, Jason Elliot, Joy Ellis, Robert Fannin, Eliza Graham, Lucretia Grindle, Penny Grub, David Hodges, Maxim Jakubowski*, Graham Johnson, John Kilgallon, Charles Lambert, Matthew Loukes, G M Malliet, Howard Marks, Eduardo Mendoza, James Miller, Chris Nickson, Maureen Reynolds, A K Shevchenko, Dan Smith, Peter Taylor, Loren Teague, James Thompson, Jenny White and Edward Wilson.

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Jane Adams, Ray Alan, Alex Barclay, Robert Barnard, Emily Barr, James Barrington, James Becker, Simon Beckett, Michael Bond, Alison Bruce, Ken Bruen, Colin Campbell, Maureen Carter, CJ Carver, Tania Carver, Mary Andrea Clarke, Rory Clements, Nicholas J Clough, Simon Conway, Lesley Cookman, Judith Cutler, Elizabeth Darrell, Louise Doughty, David Downing, Angela Dracup, Margaret Duffy, Christopher Fowler, Dick Francis, Guy Fraser, Tana French, Gillian Galbraith, Brent Ghelfi, Michele Giuttari, J G Goodhind, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Andrew Grant, Michael Gregorio, Tarquin Hall, Joanne Harris, Veronica Heley, Reginald Hill, Susan Hill, Arnaldur Indridason, Michael Jecks, Paul Johnston, Jessica Keane, Christobel Kent, Bill Kitson, Marek Krajewski, Lynda La Plante, Deryn Lake, Stephen Leather, Frances Lloyd, Claire Lorrimer, Dacia Maraini, Liza Marklund, Edward Marston, Faith Martin, K T McCaffrey, Ava McCarthy, Keith McCarthy, Ken McClure, James McCreet, James McGee, Andy McNab, The Medieval Murderers, Denise Mina, Jo Nesbo, Hakan Nesser, Ruth Newman, Malcolm Noble, Hilary Norman, J A O'Brien, Pamela Oldfield, Stuart Pawson, Mark Pearson, Anne Perry, John Pilkington, Ann Purser, Caro Ramsay, Ruth Rendell, Imogen Robertson, Peter Robinson, Roslund-Hellstrom, Jack Ross, Jean Rowden, Alan Rustage, Robert Ryan, Fay Sampson, C J Sansom, Ian Sansom, Andrea Maria Schenkel, Bernhard Schlink, Claire Seeber, Roger Silverwood, Chris Simms, Alexander McCall Smith, Frank Smith, Roz Southey, Sally Spencer, Mark Timlin, Marilyn Todd, Simon Tolkien, Kerry Tombs, Rebecca Tope, Peter Tremayne, Nicola Upson, Pip Vaughan-Hughes, Lee Weeks, Louise Welsh, Neil White, Stella Whitelaw, Jacqueline Winspear and Carlos Ruiz Zafon

*Maxim, do let me know if I haven't got yours right. I got a bit confused.

March Competition Winners

I've just sent out emails to the sponsors and winners of last month's competitions.

The winners of The Preacher and The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg are:

Deryck Johnson
Ceri Kay
Clementina Kyeremateng
Mrs Roma Pearshouse
Keith B Walters

The winners of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes are:

Sharon Buesnel
Eleanor Flatley, USA
Michael O'Sullivan
Vanessa Rozee
Mark Tucker

Congratulations to all the winners and I hope they enjoy their books.

April's competitions can be found here including a new one, added today.

Publishing Deal - Maxim Jakubowski

News in The Bookseller yesterday about Maxim Jakuboswki's new book, I Was Waiting for You:

Independent publisher Accent Press has signed a deal with Murder One owner and erotic thriller author Maxim Jakubowski.

Managing director Hazel Cushion bought world rights to I Was Waiting For You directly from Jakubowski for a five-figure sum.

Accent will publish the book—"a tightly written crime noir novel", which features Cornelia, the "fearless stripper and killer for hire"—as a paperback on 1st November.

Read the whole piece, here.

Best International Crime Crime

The Mammoth Book of Best International Crime, edited by Maxim Jakubowski came out in 2009. There are 36 short stories from around the globe and I've scanned in the Contents pages so you can see the range of authors.

I've dipped in and read Camilla Lackberg's entry: A Really Shitty Day, translated by Susan Lloyd which gives the background to Patrik Hedstrom being single in The Ice Princess!

Jo Nesbo news

A brief snippet from the latest Jo Nesbo newsletter:

The Leopard (Harry Hole #8) will come out in the UK in March 2011, and exactly one year later, The Bat Man (Harry Hole #1) will finally be published in English!

Sign up for the newsletter on the Jo Nesbo website.

Jo Nesbo talks about The Leopard in this interview, apparently it's a long book (the others aren't short!) dwelling more on Harry and his personal life than in earlier books:

Murder at Mansfield Park - cover opinions

A review of Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd will appear on Euro Crime in due course. The UK and Australian editions are both published in April with the US edition out in July. Which cover would entice you to pick it up or is the title alone enough?

UK left, Australian right
















(US cover left)
Murder at Mansfield Park is a witty and clever reimagining of Jane Austen's much-loved novel Mansfield Park. But in this Mansfield Park, things have changed...Formerly Austen's meekest heroine, Fanny Price has become not only an heiress to an extensive fortune but also a heartless, scheming minx. Hiding her true character behind a demure facade, Fanny is indeed betrothed to Edmund, now Mrs Norris's stepson; but do the couple really love each other? Henry and Mary Crawford arrive in the country ready to wreak havoc with their fast city ways, but this time Henry Crawford is troubled by a suspicious past while his sister, Mary, steps forward in the best Austen style to become an unexpected heroine. Meanwhile, tragedy strikes the safe and solid grand house as it becomes the scene of violence. Every member of the family falls under suspicion and the race begins to halt a ruthless murderer.

New Reviews: Goddard, Hannah, Mankell, Robertson, Rowson, Welsh

This month's competitions:

Win the complete Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson on Unabridged Audiobooks (UK & Ireland)
Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard;

Maxine Clarke reviews A Room Swept White by Sophie Hannah;

Maxine also reviews Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, calling it "marvellous";

Amanda Gillies reviews Craig Robertson's debut novel, Random which is published this week;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in the DI Horton series from Pauline Rowson Blood on the Sand set in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight

and Michelle Peckham reviews Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh and reports that it's as enjoyable as Welsh's previous books, The Cutting Room and The Bullet Trick.

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

Tudor Crime

Tudor era crime fiction seems to be quite popular at the moment. The latest in C J Sansom's Shardlake series, Heartstone, will be out in September:

It was summer, 1545. England is at war. Henry VIII's invasion of France has gone badly wrong, and a massive French fleet is preparing to sail across the Channel. As the English fleet gathers at Portsmouth, the country raises the largest militia army it has ever seen. The King has debased the currency to pay for the war, and England is in the grip of soaring inflation and economic crisis. Meanwhile Matthew Shardlake is given an intriguing legal case by an old servant of Queen Catherine Parr. Asked to investigate claims of 'monstrous wrongs' committed against a young ward of the court, which have already involved one mysterious death, Shardlake and his assistant Barak journey to Portsmouth. Once arrived, Shardlake and Barak find themselves in a city preparing to become a war zone; and Shardlake takes the opportunity to also investigate the mysterious past of Ellen Fettipace, a young woman incarcerated in the Bedlam. The emerging mysteries around the young ward, and the events that destroyed Ellen's family nineteen years before, involve Shardlake in reunions both with an old friend and an old enemy close to the throne. Events will converge on board one of the King's great warships, primed for battle in Portsmouth harbour.

In the meantime, S J Parris's Heresy has just been published:

Introducing the monk Giodarno Bruno, magician, scientist, and heretic in a new series of historical thrillers for fans of C.J.Sansom and 'The Name of the Rose' England, 1583 A country awash with paranoia and conspiracy -- but a safe haven for a radical monk on the run. Giordano Bruno, with his theories of astronomy and extraterrestrial life, has fled the Inquisition for the court of Elizabeth I. Here, he attracts the attention of Francis Walsingham, chief spymaster and sworn enemy of Catholic plotters. Bruno is sent undercover to Oxford, where the university is believed to be a hotbed of French dissent. Bruno quickly finds himself drawn into college intrigues, and distracted by a beautiful young woman. Before long, he is investigating a hideous series of murders, each linked by a letter offering clues. The letters suggest that each victim was guilty of heresy. But is Bruno being aided or misled - or is he himself the next target? Stalking a cunning and determined killer through the shadowy cloisters of Oxford, Bruno realizes that even the wise cannot always tell truth from heresy. But some are prepared to kill for it!

On the 1st April, the first in a new series - Bones of Avalon - from Phil Rickman will be published:

Religious strife, Glastonbury legends, the bones of King Arthur and the curse of the Tudors...can Renaissance man John Dee help the young Queen Elizabeth to avoid it? It is 1560. Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year, the date for her coronation having been chosen by her astrologer, Dr John Dee, at just 32 already famous throughout Europe as a mathematician and expert in the hidden arts. But neither Elizabeth nor Dee feel entirely secure. Both have known imprisonment for political reasons. The Queen is unpopular with both Roman Catholics and the new breed of puritanical protestant. Dee is regarded with suspicion in an era where the dividing line between science and sorcery is, at best, indistinct. And the assignment he's been given by the Queen's chief minister, Sir William Cecil, will blur it further: ride to the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, bring back King Arthur's bones. The mission takes the mild, bookish Dee to the tangled roots of English magic and the Arthurian legacy so important to the Tudors. Into unexpected violence, spiritual darkness, the breathless stirring of first love...and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth. With him is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card...and possibly the Queen's secret lover. Dee is Elizabethan England's forgotten hero. A man for whom this world - even the rapidly-expanding world of the Renaissance - was never enough.

On the 29th April, Revenger, the sequel to Martyr by Rory Clements will be out:

1592. England and Spain are at war, yet there is peril at home, too. The death of her trusted spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham has left Queen Elizabeth vulnerable. Conspiracies multiply. The quiet life of John Shakespeare is shattered by a summons from Robert Cecil, the cold but deadly young statesman who dominated the last years of the Queen's long reign, insisting Shakespeare re-enter government service. His mission: to find vital papers, now in the possession of the Earl of Essex. Essex is the brightest star in the firmament, a man of ambition. He woos the Queen, thirty-three years his senior, as if she were a girl his age. She is flattered by him -- despite her loathing for his mother, the beautiful, dangerous Lettice Knollys who presides over her own glittering court -- a dazzling array of the mad, bad, dangerous and disaffected. When John Shakespeare infiltrates this dissolute world he discovers not only that the Queen herself is in danger -- but that he and his family is also a target. With only his loyal footsoldier Boltfoot Cooper at his side, Shakespeare must face implacable forces who believe themselves above the law: men and women who kill without compunction. And in a world of shifting allegiances, just how far he can trust Robert Cecil, his devious new master?

Available on import (to the UK) we have the first in a new series from Peg Herring, Her Highness' First Murder which came out in January:

Elizabeth Tudor is as appalled as everyone else when headless corpses litter the streets of London, but when one of her own ladies is murdered, she vows to stop the killer. Her new friend Simon Maldon wants to help, and they join with a sergeant of the King’s Welsh Guard to investigate. Is the killer Elizabeth’s castellan? A creepy cleric who manages her household accounts? A madman captured on the grounds?

Religion seems to be a factor, since the murdered women are dressed in nun’s robes. Is it due to the fact that Henry’s beheaded two wives or that he’s outlawed Catholicism in England? The answers aren’t clear, but danger soon stalks the two young people. As the guardsmen search frantically for the depraved killer, Simon finds himself a prisoner, alone and in trouble. Elizabeth’s life is threatened as well. It may be too late for one of them, maybe both, to emerge from Her Highness’ first murder alive.

Queen Elizabeth I also appears in a seven book series by Karen Harper.

The Third Competition is Revealed

The latest competition on the Euro Crime website has now gone live and has one of the most valuable prizes the site has ever been able to offer.

You can win the all three parts of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy on audio book (unabridged and on 56 cds), tr. Reg Keeland and which are narrated by Saul Reichlin


This competition is open to residents of UK and Ireland only. Details on how to enter are here.

There are no geographical restrictions on the competition for Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes.

UK residents can also enter the competition to win copies of Camilla Lackberg's The Preacher and The Stonecutter.

Swedish Wallander returns to BBC4

Good news for fans of Krister Henriksson's Wallander as the second series starts next Saturday on BBC4 at 9pm (thanks to Alison for the heads-up). There have been some changes to the cast and Lena Endre (who can be glimpsed as Erika Berger in the film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) joins as Katarina Ahlsell.

The English title for Hämnden is The Revenge. The synopsis according to HenningMankell.com is:

Kurt Wallander has made the dream of his life come true. He has bought a house by the sea. He takes long walks with his faithful companion, the Labrador Jussi. Kurt feels more content and in harmony with his life than ever. All of a sudden the calm in idyllic Ystad is broken by a powerful explosion which makes the entire town go black. What has been blown up is the only transformer station in Ystad.

The explosion is followed by several other deeds. Military is called in and a state of emergency is proclaimed. Ystad starts to look like a war zone. But is it sabotage or an act of terrorism? There is chaos and chased by media, Wallander fumbles in the dark, looking for terrorists or perpetrators.

Here's the subtitle-free trailer for Hämnden :

New Reviews: Hosp, Kernick, McDermid, Moffat, Vargas, Wilson

This month's competitions:

Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

check back later this week for an exciting Stieg Larsson competition.

Here are this week's new reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Among Thieves by David Hosp; though written by an American author and set in the US there is a St Patrick's Day and Irish connection;

Maxine Clarke reviews Simon Kernick's new thriller The Last Ten Seconds;

Laura Root reviews the paperback release of the latest in the Tony Hill series from Val McDermid, Fever of the Bone;

Amanda Gillies reviews G J Moffat's debut, now out in paperback: Daisychain;

Michelle Peckham reviews the first Adamsberg novel from Fred Vargas, tr. Sian Reynolds, also now out in paperback - The Chalk Circle Man

and Maxine also reviews The Lying Tongue by Andrew Wilson

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

Upcoming Swedish Fiction

Quercus will now be publishing Swedish duo Roslund-Hellstrom beginning this September with Three Seconds translated by Kari Dickson:

Piet Hoffman is the best undercover operative in the Swedish police force, but only one other man is even aware of his existence. When an amphetamine deal he is involved in goes badly wrong, he is faced with the hardest mission of his life: to infiltrate Sweden's most infamous maximum security prison. Detective Inspector Ewert Grens is charged with investigating the drug-related killing. Unaware of Hoffman's real identity, he believes himself to be on the trail of a dangerous psychopath. But he cannot escape the feeling that vital information pertaining to the case has been withheld or manipulated. Hoffman has his insurance: wiretap recordings that implicate some of Sweden's most prominent politicians in a corrupt conspiracy. But in Ewert Grens the powers that be might just have found the perfect weapon to eliminate him...Intelligent, gripping, brutal, Three Seconds is the latest thriller from Roslund and Hellstrom, the heirs apparent to Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell as masters of Scandinavian crime.

I've added this title to my amazon list of Scandinavian Crime Fiction published in 2010.

Anders Roslund is an award-winning journalist and Borge Hellstrom, is an ex-criminal.

I'll have more Quercus snippets to report over the next few days.

Copycat Covers - Girl with flowers in her hair

The paperback of Tethered by Amy MacKinnon came out last September. The hardback cover has the most creepy cover. Sources of Light by Margaret McMullan is a YA novel due out on 12 April in the US.

What I'm Listening To

One of the audiobooks I've got on the go at the moment is The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg (tr. Steven T Murray) and narrated by Cameron Stewart.
(Win a copy of The Preacher and The Stonecutter books, here.)

I've been chuckling at some of the passages including this one where the lead male character, Patrik is contemplating the poor driving exhibited in the summer resort of Fjallbacka:

"The terrain was apparently so rugged where they lived that they felt the need to drive a big four-wheel-drive Jeep. That type of vehicle was far too common among the summer visitors. Patrik surmised that in this case the Stockholm region was considered rugged terrain."

I listened to that bit on Saturday night but my laughter would have been slightly more hysterical if I'd listened to it today as this morning my stationary, small, economical car got clipped by a Mitsubishi Shogun: the driver trying to fit a quart into a pint-pot parking space. Seems to me if you're driving a car you should know how wide it is. So lots of hassle for me, the innocent party as it'll probably need a new back brake light set and the dint repairing. The Mitsubishi however only sustained light scratches to its bumper.

Covers from the same front garden?

Petrona and I spotted these in Waterstone's on Monday, both are published by Orion:



Update (perhaps this is the garden?):

Film 2010 reviews The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Jonathan Ross gives his verdict on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo at 17 minutes into his programme. This link should take you straight there.

Publishing Deals - Marklund, Mariani

I reported earlier this year that Transworld are publishing Liza Marklund's books in the UK and in today's Publishers Lunch Weekly it seems that she's getting the US treatment as well:

Scandinavian crime writer Liza Marklund's THE RED WOLF, NOBEL'S LAST WILL, LIFETIME and A PLACE IN THE SUN, to Emily Bestler at Atria, in a four-book deal, by Niclas Salomonsson at Salomonsson Agency (US).

and also Scott Mariani's who is already published in the UK, will soon be published in the US:

Scott Mariani's THE MOZART CONSPIRACY, pitched in the tradition of Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown, following recurring character former British Special Air Service officer Ben Hope as he gets caught up in a centuries-old mystery surrounding the death of Mozart, along with its follow-up THE DOOMSDAY PROPHECY... for publication in spring 2011.

TV & Radio news (and it's all good!)

I had an email from, David B a blog visitor, about the Swedish Wallander series. He has been in touch with Yellow Bird and they have the following news:

I would like to let you know that BBC4 has acquired the second season of the Swedish Wallander series (i.e. film 14-26).

No news of when BBC4 will show them but great news nonetheless (I hope they repeat the first series again as I'm missing part of an episode...). So thank you so much to David for passing the news on.

We've had several recent announcements of casting news over the past few months:

Stephen Tompkinson as Inspector Banks

David Morrissey is Tom Thorne

and now Rufus Sewell is to play Aurelio Zen:

From Digital Spy:

Rufus Sewell has signed up to star as Aurelio Zen in a new BBC drama.

The Eleventh Hour actor will play the fictional detective across three feature-length dramas which will transmit on BBC One.

Set in and around Rome, and based on the best-selling series of novels by the late Michael Dibdin, Zen will start shooting in Italy in Spring 2010.

And though not euro crime in anyway, the tv drama Castle, starring Nathan Fillion is coming to the Alibi Channel soon.

Here's the lowdown from Alibi:

Castle is the hit new US crime drama coming soon exclusively to Alibi. Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, a best-selling crime novelist who, despite fame and acclaim, has become bored with his own success. All that changes, however, when a real-life copycat murderer starts staging scenes from Castle's novels. Castle is first suspected of the crimes and then asked to team up with NYC homicide Detective Kate Beckett to help her solve the case.

Together, the pair make a formidable combination. Beckett is a first-class investigator with a rare ability to empathise with victims, having joined the force after the murder of a loved one was never solved. Castle has spent years researching crime and brings that unique knowledge, together with a creative flair and touch of irreverence, to homicide cases. Their contrasting approaches, however, often cause sparks to fly...

Finally a bit of radio news:

Sir Ian McKellen is to play the title role in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger.

The James Bond drama will also star Rosamund Pike as Pussy Galore and Toby Stephens as Bond.

Impressionist and actor Alistair McGowan will play the canny caddie, Hawker, during the famous golf scene.

Martin Jarvis, who is also directing the play, is the voice of Fleming, while John Standing appears as M, the head of MI6.

The radio dramatisation will be faithful to the novel rather than the Goldfinger film.

The plot revolves around Bond's pursuit of Auric Goldfinger, an international criminal, who is masterminding a plan to rob Fort Knox.

The play will air on Radio 4 on 3 April.

Read the whole article at the BBC website.

Read an e-book week

Read an e-book week runs from 7 - 13 March and a couple of euro crime titles have been made available for free download for the occasion:

The out of print first entry in Simon Hall's series - TV Detective (apa A Popular Murder) - is now available free as an e-book from Accent Press. You will need to set up an account to be able to download the pdf for free. Go here.

Also a pdf of Pauline Rowson's In for the Kill can be downloaded from her website.

New Reviews: Burdett, Hayder, Lackberg, Leather, Maclean, Schlink & New Competition

Making up for the lack of competitions in February, I'm pleased to announce a second competition for March (and a third is imminent) and this one is open worldwide:

Win a copy of Tell-Tale by Sam Hayes (worldwide)
Win a copy of The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Laura Root reviews The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett, the fourth in this Thailand based series;

Michelle Peckham reviews Mo Hayder's Gone, the newest in the Jack Caffery series, now set in Bristol;

Maxine Clarke reviews one of this month's competition prizes, The Stonecutter by Camilla Lackberg, tr. Steven T Murray;

Terry Halligan reviews Nightfall by Stephen Leather the first in a new paranormal-sounding series;

Pat Austin reviews Shona Maclean's second book in her historical series: A Game of Sorrows

and Craig Sisterson reviews Self's Murder by Bernhard Schlink, tr. Peter Constantine

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

Dizzying Cover Theme

I was just updating the database with upcoming titles, including Quintin Jardine's new book, A Rush of Blood published in June and the cover's slightly familiar...

World Book Day Offer

To celebrate World Book Day, there is a special Buy One Give One promotion on. Vouchers are available in The Times, The Sun, The Sunday Times and News of the World which allow you to buy one paperback and get another free:

Buy two paperbacks £9.99 or under (excluding childrens, reference, travel or academic books) and get the cheaper book free.

Vouchers will run from 4-7 March 2010 and can be redeemed up to and including 10 March 2010.

All childrens books including those with adult crossover appeal are excluded from this offer.

More details and terms and conditions can be found here.

Trailer - The Man from Beijing

We had a bit of a cover discussion recently about Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing, with most favouring the UK edition over the US. I've now found the US trailer which I like though the music seems familiar:

Competition Winners 2009

Here's a permanent record of who won what in last year's Euro Crime competitions:

January 2009

The Paper Moon by Andrea Camilleri:

Ruth Barker
Lesley Collins
Teela Fermin
Laura Steward
Linda Wiles

February 2009

The Doomsday Prophecy by Scott Mariani:

Tina Carr
Catherine Owen
Kevin Mayers
Amy Stupple-Bagnall
Laura Wyles

Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo:

Karen McLachlan

The Reunion by Simone Van Der Vlugt:

Paul Jeorrett
Alison Maloney
Claire Mitchell
Angela Robinson
Galina Varese

March 2009

Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor:

Andrew Dommett
Judith Hamilton
Cheryl Morris
Solange Thomas
Nell Westwood

The Herring Seller's Apprentice by L C Tyler:

Sue Cook
Denise Cross
Patricia Edwards
Don Fiarley
Dorte Jakobsen
Geoff Jones
Maggie Lloyd
Frieda Plas
Ruth Slater
Harry West

April 2009

The Black Monastery by Stav Sherez:

Harvee Lau
Matthew Leslie
Elizabeth Lipsett
Erica Price
Lucy Wilson

May 2009

Suffer the Children by Adam Creed:

Shameme Adams
Ray Dodds
Fran Light
Beatrix Skane
Daniel Thomas

June 2009

The Library of Shadows by Mikkel Birkegaard:

Maya Russell

July 2009

My Last Confession by Helen Fitzgerald:

Gina Micale
B. J. Simon
Amy Stupple-Bagnall
Samantha Ripley
Roger Tomlinson

August 2009

The Third Pig Detective Agency by Bob Burke:

Patricia Edwards
Andrew Hindley
Paul Jeorrett
Tracey Poulter

Relics of the Dead by Ariana Franklin:

Andrew Cakebread
Samantha Croxford
Patricia Edwards
A P Phillis
Karen Watson

Blood Law by Steven Hague:

Judith Allen
Sandra Goodson
Ross Grant
Cherryl Thomas
Alison Turner

September 2009

Hero.Com3: Crisis Point & Villain.Net3: Power Surge by Andy Briggs:

Solange Thomas

A Visible Darkness by Michael Gregorio:

Cathy Clarke
Andy Deeley
Karen Gwilliam
Simon Harrington
Harvee Lau

November 2009

Crocodile Tears by Anthony Horowitz:

Sarah G. Wenzel

Beautiful Dead: Arizona by Eden Maguire:

K Penny
Sandra Foreman

Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn:

Brita Bevis
Johannah Carroll
George Grieve
N Millward
Vanessa Rozee

December 2009

Murder on the Cliffs by Joanna Challis

Laura Pritchard

Bequest Winners

The winners of January's competition for Bequest by AK (Anna) Shevchenko are:

Georgina Ball
Robin Brooksbank
Angela Robinson

The prizes are on their way.

The Lives of Others on BBC4

BBC4 is showing The Lives of Others tomorrow night at 10pm and is repeating it in the early hours of Thursday morning (1.45am).

Award-winning political thriller set in 1980s East Germany. Captain Wiesler works for the Stasi, the secret police, and is asked to keep surveillance on a playwright, Georg Dreyman, whose loyalty to the party is under question. During the surveillance Weisler is slowly drawn into Georg's life and begins to question his own ideals.