Review: Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler

Ten Little Herrings by L C Tyler, Paperback, 247 pages, August 2010, Pan, ISBN: 0330472135

I read and reviewed L C Tyler's first "Herrings" book over three years ago and when the fourth dropped through the letterbox recently I realised it was about time I read the next one, and the next and the next...

I really enjoyed THE HERRING SELLER'S APPRENTICE which introduced crime writer Ethelred and his agent Elsie. The ending of APPRENTICE, seemed to me, to leave the author with some work to do to set up a series. However L C Tyler has managed beautifully and cleverly to construct a way in which there can be more Elsie and Ethelred mysteries.

In TEN LITTLE HERRINGS, Elsie and Ethelred are thrust into a classic country house murder set-up. Ethelred is in France and Elsie joins him to escort him home having flushed him out of hiding by cancelling his credit cards. The run-down hotel has been hosting a stamp fare and there are a number of guests still there who turn out not to be quite as unknown to each other as they'd like to make out. When there is a murder, the only possible conclusion is that it was one of the guests whodunnit. A second death has the police locking down the hotel and banning anyone from leaving.

And so the guests become amateur sleuths with Elsie taking it very seriously and getting herself questioned by the police on a frequent basis. Her love of chocolate also gets her into some scrapes (eating the evidence anyone?), meanwhile Ethelred has a reason for being at this hotel which he keeps close to his chest.

As in the first book, the narrative alternates between the two main characters - each having their own font type - and the reader gets to see the story from two viewpoints - often wildly different!

TEN LITTLE HERRINGS is very amusing and I especially love reading Elsie's chapters with whom I perhaps, worryingly, can often identify. I don't think the crime plot works as well in TEN LITTLE HERRINGS as it did in APPRENTICE (which is a hard act to follow) as though I love a good puzzle-style mystery this one didn't grab me that much, however what kept the pages turning for me was the humour and to see what mad-cap things Elsie would get up to next. The next in the series is THE HERRING IN THE LIBRARY which has just won the 'Last Laugh Award', and I definitely won't be leaving it three years before I read it.

TEN LITTLE HERRINGS was shortlisted for the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original.

Crime Fest Quiz 2011

We were lucky enough to have Martin Edwards join our Friend Feeders team (aka the International Bloggers) at the Crime Fest 2011 quiz last Thursday.

As well as Martin and myself from the UK the team included Danish blogger Dorte and Australian blogger Kerrie and their husbands (not shown!).

Though the questions set by Peter Guttridge were incredibly hard and/or obscure I knew that with Martin involved we had a good chance of repeating the 2010 win and he we did.

Kerrie, Dorte, Me with Martin standing-up.

The prize was 3 bags of books and audio-books which have found good homes.

CrimeFest Day 4 - Random House Competition

CrimeFest has now finished and I plan to write some of it up over the next week. The final competition from Random House is for the 4 books by S J Bolton: Sacrifice, Awakening, Blood Harvest and Now You See Me.

Enter the competition here (UK & Ireland only and closes midnight 25th May 2011.

CrimeFest Day 3 - Random House Competition

Random House are running a new competition each day of CrimeFest, which began on Thursday. The third competition is for 3 books by Stella Rimington. Looking at the entry page they appear to be the first three books in the MI5 Agent Liz Carlyle series: At Risk, Secret Asset and Illegal Action.

Enter the competition here (UK & Ireland only and closes midnight 25th May 2011.

CrimeFest Day 2 - Random House Competition

Random House are running a new competition each day of CrimeFest, which began yesterday. The second competition is for 4 books by Simon Beckett. Looking at the entry page they appear to be the four books in the Dr David Hunter series: The Chemistry of Death, Written in Bone, Whispers of the Dead and The Calling of the Grave.

Enter the competition here (UK & Ireland only and closes midnight 25th May 2011.

CWA International Dagger 2011 - Shortlist

The shortlist for the International Dagger has just been announced here at CrimeFest. The nominees are:

Andrea Camilleri - The Wings of the Sphinx tr. Stephen Sartarelli
Ernesto Mallo - Needle in a Haystack tr. Jethro Soutar
Jean-Francois Parot - The Saint-Florentin Murders tr. Howard Curtis
Roslund-Hellstrom - Three Seconds tr. Kari Dickson
Valerio Varesi - River of Shadows tr. Joseph Farrell
Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place tr. Sian Reynolds
Domingo Villar - Death on a Galician Shore tr. Sonia Soto

I'll be setting the usual polls up soon. What do you think of the choices?

CrimeFest Day 1 - Random House Competition

Random House are running a new competition each day of CrimeFest, which begins today. The first competition is for 3 books by Tom Harper. Looking at the entry page they appear to be: The Book of Secrets, The Lost Temple and The Lazarus Vault.

Enter the competition here (UK & Ireland only and closes midnight 25th May 2011.

International Dagger 2011 - Shortlist Speculation

The shortlist for the CWA International Dagger will be announced on Friday. I have permission to exclusively reveal that there will be 7 titles shortlisted rather than the usual 6. So can you predict what they will be? Do please leave your selections, from the list below, in the comments box.

Jussi Adler-Olsen - Mercy
Boris Akunin - He Lover of Death
Esmahan Aykol - Hotel Bosphorus
Roberto Bolano - The Skating Rink
Fabrice Bourland - The Baker Street Phantom
Fabrice Bourland - The Dream Killer of Paris
Andrea Camilleri - The Wings of the Sphinx
Massimo Carlotto - Bandit Love
Donato Carrisi - The Whisperer
Camilla Ceder - Frozen Moment
Alfredo Colitto - Inquisition
Pablo de Santis - Voltaire's Calligrapher
Tom Egeland - Relic
Giorgio Faletti - I Kill
Sebastian Fitzek - Splinter
Karin Fossum - Bad Intentions
Claudie Gallay - The Breakers
Sissel-Jo Gazan - The Dinosaur Feather
Michele Giuttari - A Death in Calabria
Anne Holt - 1222
Arnaldur Indridason - Operation Napoleon
Claude Izner - The Predator of Batignolles
Mari Jungstedt - The Dead of Summer
Lars Kepler - The Hypnotist
Hans-Werner Kettenbach -The Stronger Sex
Marek Krajewski - Phantoms of Breslau
Camilla Lackberg - The Gallows Bird
Ernesto Mallo - Needle in a Haystack
Henning Mankell - The Troubled Man
Dacia Maraini - Train to Budapest
Liza Marklund - Red Wolf
Jo Nesbo - The Leopard
Hakan Nesser - The Inspector and Silence
Jean-Francois Parot - The Saint-Florentin Murders
Alessandro Perissinotto - Blood Sisters
Leif GW Persson - Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End
Luis Miguel Rocha - The Holy Assassin (apa The Holy Bullet)
Roslund-Hellstrom - Three Seconds
Andrea Maria Schenkel - Bunker
Bernhard Schlink - The Gordian Knot
Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Ashes to Dust
Pierre Siniac - The Collaborators
Teresa Solana - A Short Cut to Paradise
Didier van Cauwelaert's - Unknown (apa Out of My Head)
Simone van der Vlugt - Shadow Sister
Valerio Varesi - River of Shadows
Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place
Esther Verhoef - Rendezvous
Domingo Villar - Death on a Galician Shore
Shuichi Yoshida - Villain
Jan Costin Wagner - Silence

New Reviews: Adler-Olsen, Kepler, Krajewski, Lackberg, Lewis, Marks

New competition for May:
Win a copy of Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey UK & Europe only

I've added a few more reviews of those titles eligible for the 2011 CWA International Dagger, a topic which I'll be revisiting on the blog before the announcement of the shortlist on Friday, so do check back.

(I'll be at CrimeFest next weekend so there won't be any new reviews next Sunday.)

Here are this week's reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen, tr. Lisa Hartford, the first in the Department Q series;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Lars Kepler's debut The Hypnotist, tr. Ann Long;

I review Marek Krajewski's somewhat seedy but compulsive Phantoms of Breslau, tr. Danusia Stok which though it is the third in the series is set before the previous two;

Maxine also reviews the fourth in the Erica Falck/Patrik Hedstrom series, The Gallows Bird by Camilla Lackberg, tr. Steven T Murray;

Susan White reviews Jonathan Lewis's debut, Into the Darkness

and Geoff Jones reviews Howard Marks's Sympathy for the Devil.

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

Win: Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey

Euro Crime has 5 copies of Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey to giveaway. To enter the draw, just answer the question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to UK & Europe residents and will close on 4 June 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)

Clarion Calhoun is a fading pop star wanting to launch an acting career. The audience at her debut on stage at Bath's Theatre Royal are expecting a dramatic evening - but what they get is beyond their wildest imagination. When Clarion is rushed to hospital with third degree burns, rumours spread through the theatrical community and beyond. In the best theatrical tradition, the show goes on, but the agony turns to murder. The case falls to Peter Diamond, Bath's top detective - but for reasons he can't understand, he suffers a physical reaction amounting to phobia each time he goes near the theatre. As he tries to find its root in his past, the tension at the Theatre Royal mounts, legends come to life and the killer strikes again ...

Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year 2011 - Longlist

Due to the the Blogger problems and then work, I wasn't able to post this when it came out so apologies for the "old news". I like to record it on the blog for posterity :).

From the press release at Booktrade:

Now in its seventh year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, in partnership with Asda, and this year in association with the Daily Mirror, was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1st January 2010 to 31st May 2011.

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 13th May), the public will have until Sunday 5th June to vote for their favourite title at www.theakstons.co.uk and the result of this vote will determine the six titles that make it onto the shortlist.

The longlist in full (links are to Euro Crime reviews):

Blacklands, by Belinda Bauer (Corgi)

From the Dead, by Mark Billingham (Sphere)

Blood Harvest, by S J Bolton (Corgi Books)

61 Hours, by Lee Child (Bantam Books)

Winterland, by Alan Glynn (Faber)

A Room Swept White, by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)

The Woodcutter, by Reginald Hill (Harper Fiction)

Rupture, by Simon Lelic (Picador)

Sister, by Rosamund Lupton (Piatkus)

Dark Blood, by Stuart MacBride (Harper Fiction)

Fever of the Bone, by Val McDermid (Sphere)

Fifty Grand, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent's Tail)

Still Bleeding, Steve Mosby (Orion)

The Twelve, by Stuart Neville (Vintage)

Random, by Craig Robertson (Simon & Schuster)

The Holy Thief, by William Ryan (Pan Books)

The Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor (Michael Joseph)

A Capital Crime, by Laura Wilson, (Quercus)

The shortlist will be announced on 1st July, and the eventual winner will be decided by a panel of judges including this year's Festival chair Dreda Say Mitchell, the journalist and novelist Henry Sutton, the winner of a Daily Mirror reader competition and Simon Theakston, Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd.

Cast your vote here.

US version of The Killing to be on Channel 4

The news we've all been waiting for (?) - The US remake of The Killing is to be shown on Channel 4 later this year.

From the press release:

Channel 4 has secured the UK premiere free-to-air broadcast rights to Series 1 and 2 of Fox Television Studios' version of cult smash The Killing.

From writer, executive producer and series showrunner Veena Sud (Cold Case), The Killing is based on the wildly successful Danish television series, ‘Forbrydelsen' which centres around the murder of a young girl in Seattle and the subsequent police investigation. The series ties together three distinct stories around the murder, and as it unfolds it becomes clear that there are no accidents; everyone has a secret, and while the characters think they've moved on, their past isn't done with them.

Season 1, which consists of 13 x1 hour episodes, will receive its U.K. premiere on Channel 4 in 2011.

Of the acquisition Jay Hunt says: 'We are thrilled to acquire The Killing. This intense, atmospheric crime thriller redefines the genre and will sit perfectly alongside Channel 4's stable of award-winning, critically-acclaimed US shows.'

Steve Cornish added: "Following the continued success of other Fox series on Channel 4, we are delighted to be partnered with them on this moving and captivating drama."

Soaked in atmosphere, the slow burning, crime thriller stars Mireille Enos (Big Love) as Sarah Linden, the lead homicide detective that investigates the death of Rosie Larsen; Billy Campbell (Ghost Town, TV's The Practice) as Darren Richmond, Seattle's City Council President and now running for Mayor; Joel Kinnaman (Snabba Cash, God Save The King) as Stephen Holder, an ex-narc cop who joins the homicide division in the investigation to find Rosie's killer; Michelle Forbes (True Blood) as Rosie's mother, Mitch Larsen; and Brent Sexton (Flightplan, TV's The Mentalist) as Rosie's father, Stan Larsen.

I believe there is a different murderer so how likely are you to watch it after watching the Danish version? I've set up a poll on the top-right of the blog. Please cast your vote.

Update

The poll seems to have been lost but I will reinstate it later. These comments have also been lost:

Ivan has left a new comment on your post "US version of The Killing to be on Channel 4":

I will be very interested to see if the Sarah Linden character is as prominent as Sara Lund. I can't see a US crime series being made with a female solo lead (let alone one in a baggy jumper). I'm expecting the 24-style elements to be played up, and more violence/gore.
A lot will also rest on the actors Larsen's mother and father, both of which were absolutely superb in the Danish version.

upkerry11 has left a new comment on your post "US version of The Killing to be on Channel 4":

The American version stinks compared to the original. It's also available minutes after its aired via bittorrent.

Luther: Coming Soon

The BBC have released a trailer for the upcoming series 2 of Luther, created by Neil Cross. The first series is available now on DVD and this second series is due to be released on DVD on 27 June.

There is also a book coming out in August, the first in a series of books featuring Luther:

Meet Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. He's a murder detective. A near-genius. He's brilliant; he's intense; he's instinctive. He's obsessional. He's dangerous. DCI John Luther has an extraordinary clearance rate. He commands outstanding loyalty from friends and colleagues. Nobody who ever stood at his side has a bad word to say about him. And yet there are rumours that DCI Luther is bad - not corrupt, not on the take, but tormented. Luther seethes with a hidden fury that at times he can barely control. Sometimes it sends him to the brink of madness, making him do things he shouldn't; things way beyond the limits of the law. Luther: The Calling, the first in a new series of novels featuring DCI John Luther, takes us into Luther's past and into his mind. It is the story of the case that tore his personal and professional relationships apart and propelled him over the precipice. Beyond fury, beyond vengeance. All the way to murder...

Trailer:

Some kindle & epub freebies

From Rhys Bowen's newsletter:

"It is a prequel to all my Molly books and gives readers a glimpse of her at home in Ireland before she came to America. It's called The Amersham Rubies. So if you have a Kindle please download it. If you know someone who hasn't tried the Molly books yet, suggest that they have a free introduction to Molly. And if you like what you read, please post a review on Amazon."

You can download it here (for free) on amazon.com (I don't think it's available in the UK.)

The Molly Murphy series is now up to ten. You can read reviews of many of Rhys's books over on the Euro Crime website. I always recommend her Evan Evans series to fans of M C Beaton's Hamish MacBeth series and I bought a second copy of the first book Evans Above to add to my library's collection, where it's doing brisk business. Fortunately it looks like Allison & Busby are reprinting the series in 2012 and I'll be able to catch up with some of the later titles.


Brian McGilloway's The Stolen Child can be downloaded for free from amazon.co.uk or as an epub from Kobo. I don't know if it available outside the UK.

"An exclusive free edition of Brian McGilloway's acclaimed short crime-story, featuring Garda Inspector Benedict Devlin.

Includes the opening chapters of McGilloway's dazzling new novel, Little Girl Lost ('Truly chilling' Ann Cleeves)."

There are currently four books in the Ben Devlin series and these together with Little Girl Lost are reviewed here.

OT: Swift Watch

It seems you can set your calendar by the swifts. For the third year in a row, my first sighting of them has been on 10 May. No sign of them on Sunday or Monday but first thing this morning on my cycle to the station, 3 of the beauties racing about.

(Photo borrowed - not mine alas)

Woman with Birthmark on Radio 4 Extra

Hakan Nesser's Woman with Birthmark is being serialised on Radio 4 Extra and is read by Michael Maloney. The first of 5 parts was aired on Saturday but you can listen again on BBC iPlayer for the next 5 days. The second part will be broadcast on Saturday at 11.30pm.

Woman with Birthmark is the fourth in the Van Veeteren series by Hakan Nesser.

New Reviews: Carr, Colfer, Connor, McGilloway, Parot, Sharp

The reviews are back though expect another hiatus when I'm at CrimeFest (where the International Dagger Shortlist will be announced).

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews the first in a new Victorian series, India Black by Carol K Carr;

Susan White reviews Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer's first adult crime book, Plugged;

Another author changing direction is Alex Connor, who has switched from historicals to a thriller in The Rembrandt Secret reviewed here by Amanda Gillies;

Maxine Clarke reviews Brian McGilloway's Little Girl Lost which is either a standalone or the beginning of a new series;

I review Jean-Francois Parot's rich brew that is The Saint-Florentin Murders, tr. Howard Curtis set in 18th Century France;

and Lizzie Hayes reviews Zoe Sharp's Fifth Victim, where "bodyguard" Charlie Fox goes to Long Island.

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

Long Time Coming - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Robert Goddard's Long Time Coming.

Long Time Coming has just won the Best Paperback Orginal Edgar Award. Would that fact influence you to try it irrespective of these covers?

What are your thoughts on the US (LHS), UK (RHS) and UK (paperback) (below) covers? Which would entice you most to pick the book up if you were not familiar with the books of Robert Goddard?

You can read an extract here.

Read the Euro Crime review by Geoff Jones of Long Time Coming.

Jar City on BBC4

Much to the amusement of my work colleagues, I let a little squeak of delight out when I saw that BBC4 is showing Jar City, the film based on Arnaldur Indridason's novel (aka Tainted Blood).

It will be on Sunday at 10pm and is repeated next Wednesday.
Icelandic thriller. Investigating the murder of an old man, Police Detective Erlendur find clues linking it to the mysterious death of a child in 1974 but struggles to find the link. Meanwhile, Orn, a man distraught at the death of his young daughter, uses the national genetics database to find out why she died.

Next week, is Iceland week on BBC4 and as well as Jar City it is also showing The Night Shift, an Icelandic comedy and also Julia Bradbury's Iceland Walk. There is also a repeat of the Time Shift: Nordic Noir programme.

Camilla Lackberg Podcast

Recently I downloaded the Authors on Tour podcast featuring Camilla Lackberg. It's thirty minutes long and includes the author reading from The Ice Princess and answering questions from the audience. I've just finished listening to it and:

snippets include the fact that she's recently submitted her eighth book in the Erica & Patrik Fjallbacka series and that due to increasing demands on promoting and writing other books (including two cook-books and a children's book) she'll be dropping the pace to one crime book every other year. Patrik was based on her husband at the time and she made Erika very different to herself. She also gives an explanation as to the appeal of her novels around the world.

Listen to the podcast on the website or download it via iTunes (Authors on Tour - Live!).

The Ice Princess has recently been released in paperback in the US and The Preacher was published last week in hardback in the US. In the UK we are up to the fourth book, The Gallows Bird. The fifth and sixth (The Hidden Child and The Mermaid) should be out in the next twelve months.

The first four books have been translated by Steven T Murray but the later ones will be translated by his wife Tiina Nunnally. Steven has translated Stieg Larsson and Henning Mankell and Tiina translated Smilla's Sense of Snow/Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg which was one of the instrumental titles in getting translated crime fiction to a wider audience. Tiina's work will also be familiar to readers of Karin Fossum (translating as Felicity David) and most recently Mercy by Jussi Adler-Olsen.

British Success at the Edgars

The Edgar Award winners have been announced and British crime writers have won the best paperback original category, the Mary Higgins Clark Award and the best Television Episode Teleplay category.

Mystery Writers of America is proud to announce the winners of the 2011 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television published or produced in 2010. The Edgar® Awards were presented to the winners at our 65th Gala Banquet, April 28, 2011 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York City.

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Long Time Coming by Robert Goddard (Random House - Bantam) - WINNER
The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)
Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur Books)
Vienna Secrets by Frank Tallis (Random House Trade Paperbacks)
Ten Little Herrings by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER - MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
(Presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010)
Wild Penance by Sandi Ault (Penguin Group – Berkley Prime Crime)
Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur Books)
Down River by Karen Harper (MIRA Books)
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) - WINNER
Live to Tell by Wendy Corsi Staub (HarperCollins - Avon)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” - Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America) - WINNER
“Episode 4” – Luther, Teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)
“Full Measure” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
“No Mas” – Breaking Bad, Teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)
“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat” – Damages, Teleplay by Todd A. Kessler,
Glenn Kessler & Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)

Royal Crime

Some topical titles:

This is the first in a three book series which has the Queen assisting in investigations and was published in 1996.

The first in a series in which Her Majesty The Queen, with the help of housemaid, Jane Bee, investigates some mysterious murders at the royal residence. Jane believes her friend, Robin Tukes, a palace footman has been murdered - and so does a VIP who asks Jane to help her investigate.


This one's a bit older, coming out in 1981 and according to wikipedia: "purports to tell the story of a hushed-up murder in the Royal residence in 1935. Despite its including 'documentary' photographs, there is no external evidence that the book is anything but pure fiction."

Upcoming Italian Crime Fiction - Marco Vichi

I received a paperback proof of Death in August by Marco Vichi at the weekend. It's due out in June from Hodder & Stoughton. ( I mentioned it before when it was to be called Inspector Bordelli)

There are many reasons to be cheerful about it:

1) gorgeous cover
2) it's the first in the series which currently numbers four
3) it's actually quite short (not a 400 page opus like most of the Dagger submissions!) and contains a sampler of book two which is due out in January 2012.
and most excitingly:
4) it's translated by Stephen Sartarelli (of Camilleri fame) and has some of his notes at the back.

Florence, summer 1963. Inspector Bordelli is one of the few policemen left in the deserted city. He spends his days on routine work, and his nights tormented by the heat and mosquitoes. Suddenly one night, a telephone call gives him a new sense of purpose: the suspected death of a wealthy Signora. Bordelli rushes to her hilltop villa, and picks the locks. The old woman is lying on her bed - apparently killed by an asthma attack, though her medicine has been left untouched. With the help of his young protege, the victim's eccentric brother, and a semi-retired petty thief, the inspector begins a murder investigation. Each suspect has a solid alibi, but there is something that doesn't quite add up ...

The House at Sea's End - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US, UK and Canadian covers for Elly Griffiths's The House at Sea's End.

This time round the covers are quite similar but what are your thoughts on the US (LHS), UK (RHS) and Canadian (below) covers? Which would entice you most to pick the book up if you were not familiar with the books of Elly Griffiths?

If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?

Read the Euro Crime review by Maxine Clarke of The House at Sea's End.

Unfortunately the US edition is not out until January 2012.

Val McDermid news

Val McDermid's latest newsletter has just come out. You can sign up for it at her website but here are a couple of snippets:

Before I went on holiday, I was working against the clock to complete the seventh novel to feature profiler Tony Hill and police officer Carol Jordan. UNREDEEMABLE will be released in the UK on September 1st, published by Little, Brown. [] UNREDEEMABLE features the return of Jacko Vance, the villain at the heart of the second Tony & Carol novel, THE WIRE IN THE BLOOD. Many people have asked me over the years about Vance's fate. This book will, I hope, answer their questions. It's dark, it's bloody and it pushes my characters to their limits.

I've had a lot of my American readers asking when TRICK OF THE DARK will be available in the US. I'll be honest - my US publishing history has been a chequered affair. Sometimes it's felt as if US publishers think it best not to tell anyone they're actually publishing my books... So, with TRICK OF THE DARK, I'm taking a sideways step to an indie publisher, Bywater Books. And not just because the editor-in-chief is my wife... I genuinely think that indie publishers can bring a passion to publishing that doesn't always follow through in the big commercial houses. So in September, Bywater will be publishing TRICK OF THE DARK in trade paperback and e-book form in the US. Our marketing slogan will be, 'The girl who Stieg Larsson read,' for reasons that will be obvious to all of you who have read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.

New Reviews: Chapman, Hall, Hayder, Jones, Leon, Martin, Nesser, Sigurdardottir, Toyne, Villar, Watson, Winslow

Now two competitions for April:
Win a set of 5 Van Veeteren novels by Hakan Nesser UK only new
Win a copy of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin UK & Europe only.

I've published a double set of reviews today as, due to family visits, I'll be taking the next two weekends off. The reviews will be back in May and today I have chosen reviews of very recently published books and those due out in the remainder of the month.

Here are this week's reviews:

Lizzie Hayes reviews Jean Chapman's A Watery Grave, the second in this Fenland-set series;

Maxine Clarke reviews M R Hall's third outing for Coroner Jenny Cooper, The Redeemed;

Michelle Peckham reviews Mo Hayder's Hanging Hill which departs from her recent series;

Laura Root reviews the second in Tobias Jones's Northern Italy set PI series, White Death;

Still in Italy, Maxine reviews Donna Leon's new hardback, the twentieth in the Brunetti Series: Drawing Conclusions;

Terry Halligan reviews the latest in Andrew Martin's railway detective series which brings Jim Stringer into the War in The Somme Stations;

Lizzie is introduced to Swedish humour in Hakan Nesser's The Inspector and Silence, tr. Laurie Thompson which is now out in paperback (and can be won - see above);

I review Yrsa Sigurdardottir's third outing for lawyer-PI Thora, in Ashes to Dust, tr. Philip Roughton;

Amanda Gillies reviews Sanctus by Simon Toyne, the first part in a trilogy, which seems to be as good as the advertising suggests;

Maxine also reviews Domingo Villar's Death on a Galician Shore, tr. Sonia Soto (I was due to review this but I was ill in the week so I'm very grateful that Maxine donated her (superior) review) ;

Lizzie also reviews Before I Go to Sleep the debut from S J Watson which has also been garnering a lot of buzz and Lizzie was very impressed

and Amanda also reviews Satori by Don Winslow a prequel to Trevanian's Shibumi and she doesn't think fans of the original author should be disappointed.

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

Win: A set of Van Veeteren Novels by Hakan Nesser

Euro Crime has 5 sets of Hakan Nesser's Van Veeteren series (The Mind's Eye, Borkmann's Point, The Return, Woman with Birthmark and The Inspector and Silence) to giveaway.

To enter the draw, just answer the (slightly trickier than normal) question* and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to UK residents only and will close on 3 May 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)


You can read reviews of all five books at the Euro Crime website.

Plus I have "borrowed" the image on the right from Crimescraps's review of The Inspector and Silence.

*Which of these novels did NOT win the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award?

A Red Herring Without Mustard - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard.

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

If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?

Read the Euro Crime review by Lizzie Hayes of A Red Herring Without Mustard




Interestingly the UK Audiobook has a cover similar to the US print edition:

Some Publishing Deals News from LBF

Here are a few publishing deals announced at the London Book Fair. From The Bookseller:

Hodder has acquired world English rights to a standalone horror novel by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Editorial director Suzie Doore bought the rights to Blessed are the Children through Petur Mar Olafsson at Bjartur & Verold, with plans to publish in trade paperback for Halloween 2012. The title tells of three friends, terrorised by the ghost of a drowned child while they renovate a derelict house.

World rights for two crime novels were also bought for Arcadia's Eurocrime series. Cold Hearts by Gunnar Staalesen will be published in autumn 2012. The thriller is about a series of murders in the Norwegian city of Bergen. The other crime book is The Iron Chamber by Matti Joensuu, bought from Hanna Kjellberg from the Otava Agency. The book is about a series of mysterious set of murders in Finland. It will be published in autumn 2012.

Bloomsbury has acquired world rights in a series of six crime novels by Bath Literature Festival director James Runcie. Group editor-in-chief Alexandra Pringle scooped the series through David Godwin. The books will feature character Sidney Chambers, honorary canon of Ely Cathedral, as he works with friend Inspector Horatio Keating to unravel case after case. The first title, Grantchester Murders, will be published in May 2012.

Publishing Deal - Antti Tuomainen

News of a Finnish crime author to be published in English in 2013 comes from Booktrade:

Liz Foley at Harvill Secker has acquired UK & Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to Antti Tuomainen's The Healer, in a deal with the Salomonsson Agency. The Healer will be published in 2013.

The Healer is a dystopian crime novel set in a futuristic Helsinki struggling with ruthless climate change. Subway tunnels are flooded; abandoned vehicles are left burning in the streets; malaria, tuberculosis, Ebola, and the plague are rife. People are fleeing and social order is crumbling. Tapani Lehtinen, a struggling poet, is among the few still living in the city. When his wife Johanna, a newspaper journalist, goes missing Tapani embarks upon a frantic search. Johanna's disappearance seems to be connected to the story she was researching, that of a politically motivated serial killer known as 'The Healer'. Tapani's enduring love for Johanna is illustrated in flashbacks as he searches for his wife, and he uncovers secrets from Johanna's past; secrets that connect her to the very murders she was investigating...

The Healer is a story of survival, loyalty and determination in merciless times. When the world is coming to an end, all that's left is love and hope.

Liz Foley says: 'We are immensely excited to have acquired Antti Tuomainen's The Healer. Following our recent success with Jo Nesbo and Henning Mankell in the bestseller lists we're delighted to welcome a new and original Nordic crime writer to Harvill Secker.'

The Healer won the Finnish Academy of Crime Writers' Award 2010 for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

This will be a welcome addition to the currently small number of Finnish crime writers available in English translation.

More Swedish crime fiction

I went to London Book Fair today and picked up catalogues and what-not and also bumped into Don Bartlett, who is not only the friendly, charming and talented translator of Jo Nesbo and KO Dahl amongst others, but is also such a gentleman that he even asked after the cats!

Anyway, spotted on one of the huge stands, was this huge poster. My friend and I took one look at it and said Scandinavian. And yes, it's Swedish and will be published in October by Hodder & Stoughton.

Synopsis:
It is the coldest February in recent memory. In the early hours of a particularly freezing night, the body of a man is found hanging from a lone oak tree in the middle of the withered, windswept plains outside Linkoping, Sweden. The young superintendent Malin Fors, a single mother plagued by personal tragedies, is assigned to the case. Together with her colleagues from the Violent Crime Squad at the Linkoping Police Department, she must track down the identity of the man hanging from the tree and the reason he ended up there. And at the same time they must follow in the frigid wake of a killer - a manhunt that takes Malin Fors into the darkest corners of the human heart.

With Midwinter Sacrifice, I've now begun part 2 of my Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011 on amazon. Part 1 is here.

New Reviews: Hampson, Johnstone, Jungstedt, Vargas, Verhoef, Zimler

April's competition:
Win a copy of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin UK & Europe only.

Here are this week's reviews:

Lizzie Hayes reviews June Hampson's sixth book in her "Daisy Lane" series, Fighting Dirty;

Amanda Gillies provides a whisky-themed review of Doug Johnstone's Smokeheads;

Laura Root reviews the paperback edition of Mari Jungstedt's The Killer's Art, tr. Tiina Nunnally;

A few days ago on this blog I reviewed the latest in the Adamsberg series from Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place, tr. Sian Reynolds;

Maxine Clarke reviews the paperback release of Esther Verhoef's Rendezvous, tr. Alexander Smith

and Terry Halligan was deeply impressed with Richard Zimler's The Warsaw Anagrams.

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

And Redemption makes 25

I've been looking through Quercus's Autumn catalogue and it lists a new Roslund-Hellstrom (authors of the excellent Three Seconds) called Redemption to be published on 29 September and translated, as before, by Kari Dickson.

This now makes a full list of 25 titles on my Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011 amazon list (though it includes the odd US publication) so I'll soon be starting part deux it seems.

An interesting thing I've discovered is that Three Seconds is not the third in the series - Redemption is and Three Seconds is actually the fifth which might explain why the main character seemed to change abruptly from Box 21.

No UK cover yet but here is the blurb:

John Meyer Frey rots on Death Row in Utah for murdering a girl when he was seventeen. His victim's father is desperate for revenge, while his prison guard is torn by feelings of compassion for the young man. Both of them see their hopes thwarted when the killer dies of heart disease before he can be either justly punished or attain redemption.

Across the other side of the Atlantic a cheap crooner by the name of John Schwarz earns his daily crust on a ferry between Finland and Sweden. One night he sees a drunkard harassing several women and loses his temper, beating the man so badly that he ends up in hospital. The incident would normally be dismissed as just another drunken brawl, but Detective Inspector Ewert Grens is made suspicious by certain details of the case and investigates further.

This will initiate the most remarkable criminal investigation of the sullen, acerbic widower's career, which not only shocks him to the core but blows apart the worldwide debate on the death penalty - and the wider conflict between public justice and private revenge. Moving, harrowing, disturbing, Redemption is the third crime novel by Roslund and Hellström, combining a hard-hitting plot with a dark, multi-layered narrative and a killer twist.

You can find out more about the books and authors on their website and here's a promo picture for the film of The Beast featuring a familiar face to Swedish Wallander Series 1 viewers:

Review: An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas

An Uncertain Place is published today.

An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas, tr Sian Reynolds (March 2011, Harvill Secker, ISBN: 1846554452)

AN UNCERTAIN PLACE was published in French in 2008 and is the seventh in the Commissaire Adamsberg series. English readers almost have a full set of the previous entries with only the fourth instalment yet to be translated. The non-linear translation order has made Adamsberg's romantic-life and his relationship with Camille, who flits in and out of the stories, a little confusing to follow however the later books which are all set close together in time have come out more or less one after the other.

The book opens in London, where Adamsberg and two of his colleagues including the human encyclopedia Danglard, are attending a conference. After-hours, one of the English policemen, Radstock, takes his French guests around the neighbourhood which includes Highgate Cemetery. Radstock is horrified to discover a vast number of shoes (with the feet still inside) outside the cemetery. The French delegation return home to Paris shortly after and on the journey Danglard regales his colleagues with tales of the cemetery and its master vampire.

Soon though Adamsberg has a new murder case of his own. A semi-retired legal-journalist has been found obliterated in his apartment. The victim was not well liked even by his son and has left most of his fortune to the gardener who is soon suspected, however Adamsberg doesn't think he did it. This investigation begins to go off the rails and as in WASH THIS BLOOD CLEAN FROM MY HAND Adamsberg has to go off the grid and solve the case by himself.

The journey takes him to a small village in Serbia, where an old colleague turns up, and also back several centuries to find the seed of the present murderous activity.

Vargas has previously covered ghosts, werewolves and plagues so the subject matter of vampires isn't a stretch and though the story is fantastical it has its own well-plotted logic and the most incidental of happenings often proves significant as the story progresses. I have never warmed to the lead character Adamsberg, as I find him a cold creature, but he is surrounded by a cast of unusual and more likeable colleagues such as the aforementioned Danglard, a single parent with a penchant for wine and the redoubtable Retancourt, a goddess in Adamberg's mind.

Though over 400 pages long, AN UNCERTAIN PLACE didn't feel quite as meaty or as intricate as some of Vargas's earlier books, but it was still a great pleasure to read, with its excellent translation by Sian Reynolds.

The Vargas-Reynolds pairing has already won the CWA International Dagger three times, will 2011 see a fourth? Time will tell.

You can read multiple reviews of Vargas's earlier books and get the series's correct order on the Euro Crime website.

The Preacher - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK (original and reissue) covers for Camilla Lackberg's The Preacher.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS - hardback & original paperback cover on top, paperback reissue below) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with the books of Camilla Lackberg?

If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?

The Preacher will published in the US on 27 April.

Read the Euro Crime review by Sunny Gill of The Preacher

The covers of the previous book, The Ice Princess, were discussed here.

Camilla Lackberg is on twitter @camillalackberg.

London's Landmarks (Cover Theme )

These covers caught my eye, London through its bridges and waterside landmarks:

New Reviews: Barone, Bradley, Dobbs, Knox, Perissinotto, Templeton, Wilson & New Competition

A brand new competition for April:
Win a copy of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin UK & Europe only.

Here are this week's reviews:

Terry Halligan reviews Sam Barone's historical saga with lots of fighting: Quest for Honour which he enjoyed very much;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard, the third in the Flavia de Luce series, which was a "delightful read";

Guest reviewer, author Sarah Hilary reviews Michael Dobbs's Old Enemies calling it a "whip-tight thriller";

Amanda Gillies reviews Tom Knox's Bible of the Dead, a globe-trotting thriller which she highly recommends;

Maxine Clarke reviews Alessandro Perissinotto's Blood Sisters, tr. Howard Curtis writing that it is "a compelling tale";

A few days ago on this blog I reviewed the audio book of Aline Templeton's Lamb to the Slaughter which is another one of her excellent whodunnits set in Galloway

and Paul Blackburn reviews Laura Wilson's A Capital Crime, the third in the WW2-era Stratton series, which is now out in paperback.

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

Win: Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin

Euro Crime has 6 copies of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin to giveaway. To enter the draw, just answer the simple question* and include your details in the form below.
*The answer can be found in the Bibliographies section.

This competition is open to UK & Europe residents and will close on 30 April 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)

Detective Chief Inspector Frank Castle never caught the Woodlands Killer and it almost destroyed him. Now years later, mauled by the press, and traumatised by nightmares, he is faced with a copycat killer with detailed inside knowledge of the original case. He and his partner DI Jacki Stone enter a deadly labyrinth, and at its centre is the man Castle believes was responsible for the first killings. He's running a sinister cult and playing dark mind games with the police. The investigation has a shattering effect on the lives of Castle and Stone. The killer is crucifying politicians, and he keeps raising the stakes and slipping through their hands. Dark coded ritualistic killings are being carried out on high profile figures and the body count is rising. Castle employs a brilliant psychologist to help him solve the case, and he begins to dig into the killer's psyche. But some psychopaths are cleverer than others. 'Apostle Rising' is an extremely powerful Noir Crime story that contains a unique twist, timed to perfection by the author. It is a dark, layered narrative with detailed psychological profiling, and a chilling dimension of horror.

New Vik & Stubo (Anne Holt)

I've just added this title to my Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011 amazon list which now numbers 24 and it's only April...

Fear Not, Anne Holt's fourth in the Vik and Stubo series will be published in July by Corvus.

You can read my increasingly positive reviews of this series over on Euro Crime

A drug addict dead in a basement, a young asylum seeker floating in the harbour, a high profile female bishop stabbed to death in the street. What is the connection? During a snowy Christmas season in Norway, criminal psychologist and profiler Johanne Vik finds not only her husband and herself but also her autistic daughter drawn into the investigation of a number of disturbing deaths. Her husband, detective Adam Stubo, has been dispatched to Bergen to investigate the shocking Christmas Eve murder of a local female bishop. Meanwhile, in Oslo, dead bodies keep turning up, though the causes of death vary. Before long, Johanne will incredulously discover something that will link them all.

Anne Holt's Fear Not is a thrilling crime novel that raises questions about religion, human rights, and the very nature of love itself. Anne Holt has the courage to go beyond conventional crime writing and peppers the story with red-hot political issues.

Do have a peep at the sticker on the otherwise attractive cover!

I'm not sure yet if this is translated by Kari Dickson who has translated the previous three Vik and Stubos.

Review: Lamb to the Slaughter by Aline Templeton (audio book)

Lamb to the Slaughter by Aline Templeton read by by Cathleen McCarron, Magna Story Sound, May 2010, 13 CDs, ISBN: 9781846527142)

When I reviewed the third book in the "big Marge" series by Aline Templeton, Lying Dead, I commented that I hoped for a swift appearance on audio book of the fourth instalment. Unfortunately it took two years for it to appear and then a few more months for me to get hold of it and listen to it.

This time round the events revolve around the small Galloway market town of Kirkluce, where DI Marjory Fleming and her team are based. Picking up a few months after Lying Dead, Marjory's right-hand man Tam MacNee is still off on sick-leave and she has to make do with the less experienced DSs Macdonald and Wilson and DCs Kerr and Campbell.

The book opens with the discovery of a dead sheep in the craft centre in Kirkluce. The matter is not deemed important and attention is focused on the possibility of a new large supermarket coming to the town. The craft centre will have to go and the local shop-keepers are worried, however the majority seem to be in favour of it. But the man who owns the land, which includes the craft centre, is Andrew Carmichael. It's not clear what he will do and before his decision is announced he is found shot on his doorstep.

There are many suspects, especially as both those pro- and against the supermarket project have a motive. Marjory and her team swing into action and Marjory gives strict instructions that Tam be kept out of it. However he has different ideas and proceeds to carry out his own investigation. Another strand in the book is the persecution of an elderly farmer, by the local youths (neds) who are riding round her property on motorbikes and she fears for her animals. The two threads meet quite early on in the book when there is another shooting. Is there a sniper loose in the area or is there a motive behind the seemingly unconnected killings?

As well as the police-work Marjory has her own family problems to cope with, not least the association of her fourteen-year-old-daughter with the neds.

Marjory and her team have their work cut out for them with many of the suspects lying and covering up for relatives. Only a final shooting makes it all clear, at least to Fleming who tries to see that justice is done.

Lamb to the Slaughter is a good entry in this series though it doesn't quite reach the same heady heights as the previous two. As before, the community where events take place, is well depicted for the reader and you feel you get to the place, though, aside from the police and their relatives, there seems to be few likeable inhabitants. For those used to England-set police procedurals, the differences in Scottish law will be of interest as will the Scottish words and phrases used by some of the characters. The whodunnit is, as usual with this series, impossible to guess or work-out and makes you want to keep loading the cd-player up! This was a compulsive listen and made all the more enjoyable by Cathleen McCarron's skilled narration and as always I adore her Tam MacNee.

The next book, Dead in the Water, has just been released as an audio book and I look forward very much to catching up with big Marge and the team in the not too distant future.