The Play's the Thing - Sherlock Holmes

The Secret of Sherlock Holmes is to run from 20th July, for eight weeks, at The Duchess theatre in London's 'glittering West End':

Peter Egan and Robert Daws will recreate the partnership of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson on stage when The Secret Of Sherlock Holmes comes to the Duchess theatre from 20 July (previews from 15 July).


Premiered in 1988, Jeremy Paul’s play centres on a seemingly deadly encounter between Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Holmes and his nemesis, arch criminal Professor Moriarty, at Reichenbach Falls. As secrets and betrayal are slowly revealed, Watson finds his loyalty and friendship tested to the very limit, Holmes is forced to turn his unswerving powers of deduction upon himself and the true relationship between Holmes and Moriarty is finally revealed.

Tickets can be booked via this website though there may be other ways(!).

2010 Crime Novel of the Year Award - shortlist

The shortlist for the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award has been announced:

In the Dark by Mark Billingham
The Surrogate by Tania Carver
A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
Dead Tomorrow by Peter James
Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway
Doors Open by Ian Rankin
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

You can see the longlist here.

From the press release:

Now in its sixth year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing, and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback in 2009.

The winner of the prize will be announced by radio broadcaster and festival regular Mark Lawson on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on Thursday 22nd July. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.

Unlike other literary awards, with the Crime Novel of the Year it's what readers think that really counts. Voting reopens from 1st to 21st July to help determine which of the 8 Shortlisted books will go on to take the prize.

Vote now at www.theakstons.co.uk

All votes received at Longlist stage will be reset to zero, so your favourite author will need your help to claim the prize!

The eventual winner will be decided by combining the result of this public vote with the votes of a panel of expert judges: Jenni Murray, BBC Radio 4 broadcaster and author; John Dugdale, Guardian Associate Media Editor; Natalie Haynes, comedian and journalist; and Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd.

Dalziel and Pascoe author Reginald Hill is also set to receive the inaugural Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the prize ceremony on 22nd July.

The Darkest Room - cover opinions

Continuing my series of cover opinions about the 2010 International Dagger shortlist, this time it's the turn of The Darkest Room by Johan Theorin.

The Darkest Room is currently available in one US edition and two UK editions.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHSx2) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Johan Theorin?





My thoughts:

I don't particularly like the US cover as it doesn't resemble the setting of the book though it does (perhaps) convey the cold weather. I do like the fact that the translator's name, Marlaine Delargy, is on the front cover.

I like the UK trade paperback edition cover with its light-house (though the story revolves around twin light-houses) and at least gives the idea that the story is set by the sea.

But I absolutely loathe the UK paperback edition cover as it is in the current style of 'generic crime novel' cover ie distressed furniture (bath, chair, staircase) in a disgusting room. It makes it look like an urban setting which is far from the truth and worse it has an incorrect statement about the plot.

If you haven't read this book, I recommend not reading the blurb on the back cover which gives away more than I at least would like to know. Maxine's review of The Darkest Room, of course, does not give too much away.

I also don't like the title as it doesn't seem to fit the story that well.

Finally, the third part of the quartet, A Place of Blood, will be published in March.

The Girl Who Played With Fire - US opening

The UK is being pipped to the post by the US in the race to release the film of The Girl Who Played With Fire. The UK release date is set for 27th August but many places in the US will be showing it from the 9th July. You can see the locations on the official website.

Here are the respective posters, any thoughts?

US Poster

UK Poster

and here's the UK official website.

The Sea, The Sea

I noticed that Harlan Coben's latest paperback has the sea on the front and we've reviewed a couple of titles recently, which also have the sea on the cover: Diane Janes's The Pull of the Moon and Louise Welsh's Naming the Bones. I'm not sure how relevant the covers are to the contents of the first three but the fourth title, Genesis by Bernard Beckett, has a very appropriate cover. Genesis is a YA/Adult cross-over title - more science-fiction than crime though it does contain a crime - which came out last year and I reviewed it on my teenage blog.

OT: Roses & Cat Pots

About a year ago I reported on my successful trip to David Austin Roses. More by luck than judgement the roses we bought are doing ok and I took a picture earlier of one of them:


And if you live in the UK you may have seen this cute cat plant holder at garden centres. My mum took pity on me last week and bought me one. Note how I've carefully colour matched the (bought) plant to the (bought) pot - oh what a gardener I am...

Turquoise is the Colour

A few familiar and recently mentioned titles with blue-y covers plus a couple of upcoming titles at the top:

Euro Crime quoted on Hunt for the Bear

I received a review copy of the paperback release of Derek Haas's Hunt for the Bear and on the back cover there is a quote from "EUROCRIME"!

The quote is taken from Michelle Peckham's review of the trade paperback edition.


I have been cataloguing (some of) Euro Crime's citations on the blog.

Thirteen Hours - Cover Opinions

As with Hypothermia, US based readers of the 2010 International Dagger Shortlist will have to wait until September (7th) for the US edition of Thirteen Hours by Deon Meyer.

Read the Euro Crime review (by Maxine) of Thirteen Hours.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Deon Meyer?

Queenan's Crime Scenes

There are a couple of podcasts still available on the BBC World Service website from when American writer Joe Queenan went to first Washington DC and then to Stockholm to look at crime fiction set there and speak to local residents, including crime authors. In the Stockholm edition he speaks to Jens Lapidus, Camilla Lackberg and Hakan Nesser as well as two (female) police officers, and if you haven't already come across the proper way to pronounce Larsson - it's more like Larshon.

The podcast is only 23 minutes long and well worth a listen. Download it from here.

OT: Night of the Living Trekkies

This one's in the horror genre but it sounds fun to a Trek fan like myself! Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin Anderson and Sam Stall will be published on 14 July in the UK.

Synopsis: Our story follows a rag-tag group of Trekkies en route to an annual Star Trek convention. Arriving with homemade uniforms, glued-on prosthetics, and plastic phasers, these fanboys know more than any rational adult should know about Kirk, Spock, Next Generation, particle physics, black holes, and Ricardo Montalban. But when aliens release a zombie plague upon the Earth, all of this Starfleet training suddenly becomes a lot more relevant. Our fanboys find themselves trapped in the Botany Bay Hotel and Convention Center - and desperate to escape. Some will be assimilated. Others will summon the courage of their favorite characters and perform brave feats of heroism. And one reluctant fan will discover his inner Trekkie, rise up, and take command of the crew.

Gone to the Dogs

As a change from cat-related mysteries, here are a couple of new books which feature dogs in prominent roles - not talking ones though:

No Going Back by Lyndon Stacey, published March 2010

The first in an exciting new mystery series featuring ex-police dog handler Charlie Whelan -

When two young sisters run away on Dartmoor, Charlie Whelan and his German shepherd, Taz, are called into action, and a desperate search quickly turns up one of the girls. However, rather than showing relief at being rescued, she seems terrified. Darkness halts their hunt for her elder sister, and Charlie returns home with one distressing question on his mind: just what were the girls running from?

Into Darkness by Johnathan Lewis, to be published 16 September 2010.

In the stinking mud of a great tidal river, a body lies half submerged. Sir Tommy Best, adored British actor, has fallen to his death through a hole in the walkway above. The saintly Sir Tommy was friend to the starving and penniless, to kings and stars. He was also totally blind and reliant on his brilliant guide dog, Suzy. But she is nowhere to be found. It seems unimaginable that Suzy would have led him into danger, so is it murder? And where is she? When she finally turns up, it is only to deepen the mystery. She is stressed and tense and soon Chief Superintendent 'Fatso' and Detective Chief Inspector Ned realise that only one person in the force can possibly help. Kate, police dog handler extraordinaire, known affectionately as the Dog Tart, suggests they find Nick Parsons, who trained Suzy, in the hope that he can get the dog to lead them to the truth. The search for Nick Parsons culminates in a highly unusual plan, in which Ned will become blind for one night and with Suzy the guide dog, re-enact Sir Tommy Best's last fateful walk. The truth which they uncover is utterly horrible.

Trailer - Bad Boy

Bad Boy, the latest in the Inspector Banks series by Peter Robinson will be out in the UK on 5 August and a couple of weeks later in the US.

Synopsis: When Juliet Doyle discovers a gun in her daughter’s bedroom, she turns to old friend DCI Alan Banks for advice. But Banks is taking a much-needed holiday, and it's left to DI Annie Cabbot to deal with the removal of the firearm. No one can foresee the operation's disastrous consequences, or that the Doyles will not be the only family affected.

Banks's daughter Tracy has fallen for the wrong boy. Her flatmate’s boyfriend is good-looking, ambitious, and surrounded by an intoxicating air of mystery. He's also very dangerous. When Tracy warns him that the police might be on his tail, he persuades her to go on the run with him, and flattered by his attention, she agrees. Before she knows it, a deadly chase across the country is set in motion.

And on his return, completely unsuspecting of Tracy's perilous situation, Banks is plunged into his most terrifying, personal case yet.

The trailer below shows Peter Robinson speaking about Bad Boy and the Yorkshire Dales setting of his series:

Hypothermia - Cover Opinions

US based fans of Arnaldur Indridason's Erlendur series will be pleased to know that Hypothermia will be out there on 14 September (also in Kindle edition). Hypothermia is on the short-list for the 2010 CWA International Dagger.

Read the Euro Crime review (by Maxine) of Hypothermia.

So what are you thoughts on the UK (LHS) and US (RHS) covers? Would either entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Indridason?
(Incidentally at the time of writing, the blurb on amazon.com is actually for The Draining Lake!)

The Girl Who Played With Fire - UK Trailer

The official UK trailer for The Girl Who Played With Fire has been released. I'm so looking forward to seeing this when it's released on 27 August:

Book Video Awards 2010

I've managed to get my hands on the latest edition of The Bookseller and there's an article in it which I can't find online so I shall type parts of it in:

Novels by crime writers including James Ellroy and Jo Nesbo are to be turned into book trailers as part of the third annual Book Video Awards.

The winning students are to make four 90-minute (seconds?) films based on Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy, Hypothermia by Arnaldur Indridason, Blood Harvest by S J Bolton and Jo Nesbo's The Snowman. Each have received £5000 to make their films which will then be used to promote the titles on author and fan sites including YouTube and Amazon.

The public will be able to vote for their favourite video on www.foyles.co.uk in September. The overall winner will be announced in October.

Lightbulbs - cover theme #2

I posted these lightbulb covers last year and I've recently found two more that qualify:






Additions:

New Reviews: Campbell, Doherty, Hughes, James, Jungstedt, Rayne

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the paperback edition of Karen Campbell's After the Fire which is a strong contender for his top 5 of 2010;

Craig Sisterson goes to Ancient Egypt with Paul Doherty's The Anubis Slayings;

Michelle Peckham enjoyed the new Ed Loy, PI from Declan Hughes: City of Lost Girls;

Maxine Clarke is disappointed with the "mind of a killer" scenes in Peter James's Dead Like You but enjoys The Killer's Art by Mari Jungstedt, tr. Tiina Nunnally much more

and Amanda Gillies has high praise for Sarah Rayne's new chiller (set in the Fens), House of the Lost.

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

Trailer - Lockdown

Sean Black's debut thriller, Lockdown will be out in paperback on 24 June:

New York. It may be Christmas in New York, but for ex-soldier turned elite bodyguard Ryan Lock, it's business as usual: his mission is to protect one of America's most ruthless businessmen. A Bloody Shoot-Out. Suddenly gunshots ring out. People run for cover. Innocent people are mown down. Amid the chaos, Lock's hunt for the killers turns into an explosive game of cat and mouse. A Deadly Secret. Lock's search for the truth takes him from the rooftops of a New York skyscraper to a heavily fortified warehouse on the Hudson where he confronts one of the world's most dangerous women. As the clock ticks towards midnight on New Year's Eve, all routes into and out of Manhattan are sealed, and Lock realises that not only is his own life in terrible danger but so are the lives of millions of others...

What are the odds?

Thanks to Roger Cornwell sending this via the Dagger judges group. Apparently you can bet on which title will win the Golden Dagger for Non Fiction and the International Dagger:

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest - Stieg Larsson 9/4
Hypothermia - Arnadur Indridason 10/3
Thirteen Hours - Deon Meyer 4/1
August Heat - Andrea Camilleri 9/2
Badfellas - Tonino Benacquista 9/2
The Darkest Room - Johan Theorin 9/2

Quick Euro Crime Poll Update:

1) Want to win is currently a close tussle between Hypothermia and Hornets' Nest.
2) Think will win is, well, Hornets' is streaking away.

Plenty of time left to cast your votes in the polls on the top-right of this blog.

The Vanishing of Katharina Linden - cover opinions

This comparison's slightly different to usual. The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant is being published in the US on 10 August in Hardback. The UK edition came out last year in paperback.

For me, the title alone caught my attention on the UK edition however the cat would get *my* attention on the US cover!

US -------------------------------------------------------UK



What's interesting is that the UK edition is marketed at teenagers and was shortlisted for the 2009 Booktrust Teenage Prize (the eventual winner was the equally cross-over The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman) and is also shortlisted along with The Graveyard Book for the 2010 CILIP Carnegie Medal. In the US however, it is categorised (on amazon at least) an adult edition.

Either way it's a great read for fans of mysteries whatever their age. My review is on my teenage blog.

Thorne - teaser trailer

I've been seeing this trailer for Thorne on SkyOne and have found it at the Little, Brown website:



David Morrissey is playing DI Tom Thorne from Mark Billingham's series. The first two books, Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat are being televised and are due to be shown in August.

New Reviews: Connolly, Gray, Kelly, Rayne, Robertson, Timlin

Here are this week's reviews:

Pat Austin reviews the latest Charlie Parker from John Connolly, The Whisperers;

Paul Blackburn reviews the seventh of Alex Gray's Glasgow set series Five Ways to Kill a Man;

Maxine Clarke reviews the debut novel by Erin Kelly The Poison Tree, which has been likened to Barbara Vine's A Fatal Inversion;

Michelle Peckham reviews the paperback edition of Sarah Rayne's Ghost Song;

Terry Halligan reviews the second of Imogen Robertson's 18th Century series, Anatomy of Murder

and Geoff Jones reviews Mark Timlin's Guns of Brixton.

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

April 2010 Competition Winners

Here are the winners of April's competitions.

The winner of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy on audio book is:

Geoff Dagger

The winners of Daisychain by G J Moffat are:

Georgina Docherty
Marita Duff
Helen Jones
Jane Middleton
Jean Stewart

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

May's competition winners will be announced shortly.

Teaser Poster for The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Played With Fire film is due to be released in the UK on 27 August. A teaser poster was released recently at LoveFilm:





There are 7 more stills from TGWPWF at Blogomatic3000.

An Interview with Leigh Russell

Euro Crime, in the shape of reviewer Amanda Gillies has recently interviewed author Leigh Russell about her books and her route to getting published.

Amanda has already reviewed Leigh's first book, Cut Short which is the beginning of the DI Geraldine Steel series. The second book, Road Closed which has just been released, will be reviewed shortly.

ROAD CLOSED, the second novel about DI Geraldine Steel, has just been published by No Exit Press. Euro Crime caught up with its author, Leigh Russell, and asked her a few questions….

Can you remember what first got you writing?

I was walking through my local park one rainy day. As I approached a tangled copse of trees and shrubs by a bend in the path, a man came round the bed walking towards me. I don’t know where the idea came from but I wondered what I would do if I walked on and saw a body in the bushes… and I’d seen this man, I could identify him… I walked on, and there was no body in the bushes, but when I reached home I started writing the story. Who was the girl in the bushes? Had anyone noticed when she didn’t come home? Perhaps she had a boyfriend who used to knock her about. Would the police suspect him? Then there was the killer’s story… Finally I had to bring in the police… Within six weeks I’d written 85,000 words spinning out of that one random thought.

So, was it a hard slog to find a publisher for CUT SHORT or was the whole process easier than you thought?

Having completed my manuscript I thought I might as well have a go, so I found three publishers who specialise in crime fiction and sent them what I’d written. I didn’t expect to hear from any of them but two weeks later I had a phone call from my publishers and a couple of months later they signed me up for three books.

ROAD CLOSED, your second book, is just out. Has the build-up been as exciting as it was with CUT SHORT or are getting used to it all now?

ROAD CLOSED was printed ahead of schedule as WH Smith’s Travel want to promote it in June. A month ahead of its official publication date it is already selling on amazon, with only 5 copies left in stock and more on the way. I didn’t expect to feel so excited about my second book – but I am! What with writing my third book, DEAD END, and promoting my first, CUT SHORT, I’ve had no time to stress about how ROAD CLOSED will be received, but it seems to be selling well.

Are you pleased with the way in which CUT SHORT has sold?

I’ve been completely bowled over by the success of my first book, which has been reprinted three times in its first year.

What’s it been like, doing numerous book signings and keeping the momentum going? Where on earth have you found time to carry on with your writing?

I enjoy getting out and about meeting readers, whether or not they decide to buy my book, and people in general have been very friendly and generous. Time is my main problem as I still work full-time. Fortunately I write very fast…

Can you give away any secrets about ROAD CLOSED to your Euro Crime fans? You know, just to keep us going …

Geraldine is in for a surprise in ROAD CLOSED, and the killer’s identity isn’t apparent from the start as it was in CUT SHORT. I’m not going to tell you any more – but I hope you’ll read the book and find out!

What kind of books do you like to read yourself and which author do you admire the most?

One of the sad aspects of my life right now is that since I started writing, I have very little time to read. I do enjoy crime fiction, especially psychological thrillers, but my tastes are fairly eclectic. My favourite authors include F Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Dickens, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, and in my own genre Simon Beckett, PD James, Ruth Rendell, Frances Fyfield and, of course, Jeffery Deaver who took the time to email me to let me know he’d read CUT SHORT and “loved it!”

So, what next, for you as well as Geraldine?

I am finishing the first draft of DEAD END, and my publisher has already put in an offer for a fourth book in the series, so it looks as though Geraldine Steel is going to be around for a while. As for me, I’ll continue writing, giving talks at literary festivals, colleges and libraries, giving interviews on BBC Radio and online, trotting round the country signing in bookshops…

Finally, do you have any tips for those of us that think we have a novel in us somewhere?

It is very exciting to be a published author, but for me the main buzz is the writing, so my advice is to enjoy writing for its own sake. If you find a publisher, that is a bonus.

Thank you very much for interviewing me here, with such searching questions. I am grateful to you for writing such a glowing review of CUT SHORT; I really hope you enjoy ROAD CLOSED just as much.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Leigh.
We are really looking forward to reviewing ROAD CLOSED and wish you all the best with it.

You can read more about Leigh and her books at her website.

The Ice Princess - Cover Opinions

The US edition of Swedish author Camilla Lackberg's The Ice Princess is being published on the 15th. In addition her website has just been relaunched at www.camillalackberg.com.

So which one of these covers would entice you to pick the book up if you'd not heard of Camilla Lackberg before? US is on the left, UK on the right.

The Euro Crime review of The Ice Princess is here.

Holding onto Unreviewed Review Books

It's become crisis point space-wise here at Euro Crime HQ. The books are everywhere and I need to make a cull.

What happens with review books is this:

Books are sent direct to me as co-ordinator of the website and roughly once a week I email a list of received books with synopsis to the review team. They email back with their preferred choices, I post the books to them and await the reviews. I also get emails from publicists who ask about a review for a particular title and I circulate the details and get the book sent direct to the reviewer (this is preferable to me as it speeds the process up and saves me £££ on postage).

But the thing is - what to do with the books nobody has requested? How long do I hold on to them? Do I hope that someone's enthusiasm will be pricked by a review from another source or perhaps that a new reviewer will join the team who might have different interests?

Does there come a point when a review of a book is too late in the day and that slot would be better given to a newer book?

What do other review sites do? Do they send out books on a pot-luck basis to their reviewers and does this generate more reviews or less if you've not been given a choice as to which books you want to review.

Do publicists care/notice if you don't review every book they send, on the site and would they find it preferable, though time-consuming, for books not to be sent until a home is found ie do everything by email first.

This same quandary about hanging onto books applies to one's own to-be-read pile. When do you say - I'm never going to read that book? and thus rehome it.

One final point is that I also get a small number a week of what I call American serial killer books and unfortunately, they are not covered under euro crime so I donate these either to a fellow blogger or my library.

Any thoughts on the above, from reader, reviewer or publicist, welcomed :).

New Reviews: Janes, Kristian, McGilloway, Nadel, O'Connor, Sigurdardottir

Closing tomorrow:
Win a copy of Deadly Trade by Michael Stanley (Worldwide)
Win a copy of Bad Penny Blues by Cathi Unsworth (UK only).

Here are this week's reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews Diane Janes's fiction debut, The Pull of the Moon (partly set in Birmingham);

Amanda Gillies goes back to the Vikings in the second in the Raven series by Giles Kristian - Sons of Thunder;

Michelle Peckham reviews the recently released paperback edition of Brian McGilloway's Bleed a River Deep, the third in this Irish Borderlands series;

Laura Root reviews the latest Cetin Ikman from Barbara Nadel Death by Design, in which Inspector Ikman goes undercover in London;

Terry Halligan reviews journalist Niamh O'Connor's debut If I Never See You Again the first in a series starring Dublin Superintendent Jo Birmingham

and Maxine also reviews the second in the Thora (and Matthew) series from Yrsa Sigurdardottir, tr. Bernard Scudder and Anna Yates - My Soul to Take which has an Agatha Christie style set-up.

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

Jeffery Deaver to write James Bond

Quite a surprising announcement this I think but American author Jeffery Deaver is to write the next authorised James Bond story and it is to be set in the present day. I listened to the last one, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks and though the narration was superb by Jeremy Northam I found the story a little dull.

From The Guardian:

Best known for his quadriplegic detective Lincoln Rhyme, the star of books including The Bone Collector and The Stone Monkey, Deaver has been commissioned to write a new Bond novel by Fleming's estate. Currently known as Project X, the book will be set in the present day, unlike Sebastian Faulks recent addition to the Bond oeuvre, Devil May Care, which took place in 1967.

Apart from its contemporary setting, Deaver was giving little else away about the plot, but revealed it would occur over a short period of time and take 007 to "three or four exotic locations around the globe". He has already started writing the book, which is out next May, and promised it would retain "the persona of James Bond as Fleming created him and the unique tone the author brought to his books", while also incorporating his own "literary trademarks: detailed research, fast pacing and surprise twists".

Fleming's estate was moved to approach Deaver after he raved about the Bond books in an acceptance speech for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award.

There is an official website James Bond Project X.

The Herring in the Library

L C Tyler's next book, published in July, is The Herring in the Library, the third in his Herring series after, The Herring Seller's Apprentice and Ten Little Herrings. This comedic series features agent and author: Elsie and Ethelred (or Ethelred and Elsie series as they are known in the US). The fourth book is to be The Herring on the Nile!

I loved the Edgar-Award-listed Herring Seller's Apprentice and it's time I caught up with this series.

Synopsis: "When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduct his own investigation. Ethelred (ably hindered by Elsie) sets out to resolve a classic 'locked room' mystery; but is any one of the assorted guests and witnesses actually telling the truth? And can Ethelred's account be trusted? In the process, we meet one of Ethelred's own creations, the fourteenth-century detective Master Thomas, who is helped in his investigations of a mediaeval crime at Muntham Court by a small and rather pushy Abbess with a taste for honey cakes ...Is it possible that Master Thomas can shed some light on the twenty-first century case, and on Ethelred's own motives for investigating Sir Robert's death? "The Herring in the Library" is another ingenious outing for crime fiction's most mismatched double-act."

It's no coincidence that the covers have some resemblance in style to fellow-Last Laugh nominee Malcolm Pryce's Aberystwyth Noir series:

International Dagger Speculation (2010) - the polls

I have now set up two polls, to close the day before the announcement of the winner of the International Dagger 2010 on 23 July at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

The first poll is for:

The book you want to win.

The second poll is for:

The book you think will win.

The polls can be found on the RHS of the blog. We'll see how much correlation there is - and you can see the results of last year's polls here.

CrimeFest Quiz Prize

When the team I happened to be on won the 2010 CrimeFest quiz, the prize came in the form of a large cardboard box full of books, audio books and Lewis DVDs, from which we helped ourselves. Here's what I took:



The James Patterson audio book is unabridged and will fit nicely into my teenage fiction interest. I don't normally listen to abridged books but the Kate Atkinson one is read by Jason Isaacs...

(Thinking it about it now, I have a feeling the Lee Child audio book was in my book bag...and not a prize.)

OT: Cat Photos

I've been copying the CrimeFest photos onto my pc and came across these recent ones of Foxy. In the first one he's cutely curled up on some bubble wrap but in the second you can see why he has the nickname Fangy Fox!

Back from CrimeFest

I had rather a lengthy journey back from CrimeFest at Bristol today (compared to the number of miles I had to go) due to Sunday engineering works and broken down trains, and I haven't unpacked everything yet and I certainly haven't touched my packets. Apparently 12 came in one day - this is rather unusual, possibly even a personal record!


Mark it in your diary - next year's CrimeFest is 19-22 May 2011.

International Dagger 2010 - Shortlist

Finally, the suspense is over. At today's Crime Fest, the shortlist for the 2010 CWA International Dagger Award was announced:

Tonino Benacquista - Badfellas
Andrea Camilleri - August Heat
Arnaldur Indridason - Hypothermia
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest
Deon Meyer - Thirteen Hours
Johan Theorin - The Darkest Room

The shortlists for the Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction, Dagger in the Library, Short Story and Debut Daggers were also announced. Details are on the CWA website.

Marcel Belins gives his winner's prediction in The Times

Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2010 - Longlist

From Booktrade:

"A major accolade in the crime writing field, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is unique in that it is the only one of its kind which is largely voted for by the general public. As of today (Friday 21st May), the public will have three weeks to vote for their favourite title at www.theakstons.co.uk, and the result of this vote will determine the eight titles that make it onto the shortlist.":

In the Dark by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
If It Bleeds by Duncan Campbell (Headline)
The Surrogate by Tania Carver (Little, Brown)
The Business by Martina Cole (Headline)
A Simple Act of Violence by R.J. Ellory (Orion)
Until It’s Over by Nicci French (Penguin)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
Cold in Hand by John Harvey (Arrow)
Skin by Mo Hayder (Transworld)
Vows of Silence by Susan Hill (Vintage)
The Dying Breed by Declan Hughes (John Murray)
Dead Tomorrow by Peter James (Pan Books)
Target by Simon Kernick (Transworld)
A Darker Domain by Val McDermid (HarperCollins)
Gallows Lane by Brian McGilloway (Pan Macmillan)
Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell (Hodder)
Singing to the Dead by Caro Ramsay (Penguin)
Doors Open by Ian Rankin (Orion)
All The Colours of Darkness by Peter Robinson (Hodder)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster)

Crime Fest Day 2.1

My first panel of the day - I Fought the Law: Authors who write both crime fact & fiction, chaired by Martin Edwards who, though he claims not to be a morning person, led an interesting and lively panel.

L-R: Alison Bruce, Dan Waddell, Martin Edwards, Diane Janes, Frances Brody:



Dan and Martin after the panel:



Of particular interest to me was the fact that Diane Janes's book, The Pull of the Moon, is partly set in Birmingham. Regular readers of this blog might be aware of how unusual this is. Alison Bruce's series has been on my radar for a while as it's set in Cambridge, another of my favourite settings. Dan Waddell has agreed to visit my library to give a talk at an unspecified date as yet but I look forward to hearing more abut his genealogy book and crime series. He introduced the panel (and audience?) to the term "psychogeograhy" when talking about how Rillington Place has been obliterated, rebuilt and renamed but without a number 10. Martin said that Crippen's house was demolished in the blitz but there are similar houses around that he could look at for his book on Crippen. Frances Brody shared a story on how she went to Headingly to find a house for her main character and how the current owner was a bit suspicious about her and didn't offer a tour inside. (Her next book is set in Harrogate). Zoe Sharp won the goody bag for the most interesting question, asking the panel what was the most unusual fact they'd found during their research. Dan said that he's read that a stupid surname shortens life expectancy but he hasn't been able to find any scientific evidence to corroborate the claim!

Crime Fest Quiz 2010

I'm pleased to report that your erstwhile correspondent was part of the winning team, the Monkey Coalition, at the quiz tonight at Crime Fest. The team comprised readers Rik, Carol and myself and authors, Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards and Cath Staincliffe. The prize was a large mixed box of books, talking books and DVDs which we plundered to our own personal satisfaction. I'm afraid I had little to do with our success, rather it was Martin and Rik who stole the show!

Publishing Deal - Cathi Unsworth

I'm currently running a competition to give-away copies of Cathi Unsworth's current book, Bad Penny Blues, but on Booktrade the other day there were details of Cathi's next project, announced by Serpent's Tail:

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Cathi Unsworth – the queen of London Noir's - fourth novel WEIRDO.

Cathi's editor John Williams said:

'We're thrilled to be publishing Cathi's new book - her most personal and her most commercial title yet. Weirdo is a psychological thriller set in a seaside town in Norfolk (Cathi Unsworth's home turf), which moves between the eighties and the present, as a Cold Cases detective attempts to uncover the truth about a murder apparently carried out by a teenage goth girl twenty years earlier.'

Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer, editor and a regular on the rock'n'roll reading circuit who lives and works in London. She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19 and has worked as a writer and editor for many other music, film and arts magazines since, including Bizarre, Melody Maker, Mojo, Wire, Mslexia and Dazed and Confused.

Serpent's Tail will publish Weirdo by Cathi Unsworth in 2012.