The Last Kashmiri Rose - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Barbara Cleverly's The Last Kashmiri Rose which was reissued in US paperback in August by Soho Press (bottom left cover). The Last Kashmiri Rose was first published in 2001 and the series currently numbers nine with 2011's The Blood Royal.

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

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

I read this book in October 2004. I didn't write a formal review but summarised it on one of my monthly read posts:

[] for F2F reading group book where the theme is Eastern Crime (I've just started The Winter Queen by Akunin, also for this theme). Golden Age style mystery in a Golden Age setting at least for the British in India. It's 1922 and officers' wives have been dying - one a year in March. Sandilands is sent from Calcutta to confirm that the deaths were murder and to find the perpetrator. First half is excellent where we get the backstory on all the deaths. It loses its way in a romance/affair sub plot in the middle and then picks up for a dramatic showdown with the killer. Will read more! ps The UK covers are exquisite.

I never did finish The Winter Queen and have yet to read more Sandilands books but I recommend it nonetheless.

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




































Blurb: In a land of saffron sunsets and blazing summer heat, an Englishwoman has been found dead, her wrists slit, her body floating in a bathtub of blood and water. But is it suicide or murder? The case falls to Scotland Yard inspector Joe Sandilands, who survived the horror of the Western Front and has endured six sultry months in English-ruled Calcutta. Sandilands is ordered to investigate, and soon discovers that there have been other mysterious deaths, hearkening sinister ties to the present case.

Now, as the sovereignty of Britain is in decline and an insurgent India is on the rise, Sandilands must navigate the treacherous corridors of political decorum to bring a cunning killer to justice, knowing the next victim is already marked to die.

Read an excerpt here.

Translation News

I've been told that the follow-up to Jussi Adler-Olsen's Mercy - Disgrace - is being pushed back to June (from March). Proofs should be around in a couple of months. No news on the translator yet. If this happens Disgrace will be eligible for the 2013 International Dagger not the 2012.

The sequel to Lars Kepler's The Hypnotist, The Nightmare (out May 2012), is being translated by Laura A Wideburg. She has previously translated the three Inger Frimansson books available in English and reviewer Maxine, at the time, praised her translations. Laura Wideburg's website also states that she is working on a Helene Tursten novel (presumably 2012's Night Rounds?)

More Poirot & Marple on ITV1

Separate announcements today have revealed that 5 more Poirots and 3 more Marples are on their way.

From The Telegraph:

Five new films, based on a mixture of novels and short stories, will go into production next year.

Suchet said: ''I'm more than delighted to be reprising my role as Poirot. It's been my life's ambition to bring this amazing canon of works to completion on ITV.

The new films include Curtain, which is Poirot's last case and sees the detective, immobilised with arthritis, call on his old friend Captain Hastings to help him as they return to the scene of their first ever case to try to prevent another murder.

And in an ITV press release:

ITV is delighted to announce that acclaimed stage and television actress Julia McKenzie will return to her role as Miss Marple.

Three Marple films including Caribbean Mystery have been commissioned from ITV Studios and Agatha Christie Ltd.

A Caribbean Mystery will be the first film to be shot during the summer of 2012 with two further films Endless Night and The Seven Dials Mystery produced during the autumn of 2012.

New Reviews: Bauer, Fowler, Gomez-Jurado, Hannah, Leather, Russell, Walker, Walters

Here are this week's new reviews:

Michelle Peckham reviews Belinda Bauer's sequel to the award-winning Blacklands, Darkside which is now out in paperback;

Rich Westwood reviews Christopher Fowler's Bryant & May off the Rails and catches up with London's oldest serving detectives...;

I review Juan Gomez-Jurado's The Traitor's Emblem, tr. Daniel Hahn which is more history than mystery;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Little Face and also reviews the "Flipback" format it came in;

Terry Halligan reviews Stephen Leather's sequel to Nightfall, Midnight which continues the story of Jack Nightingale with his sold-off soul;

Amanda Gillies adds Craig Russell's character "Lennox" to her list of favourites, here in in his second outing: The Long Glasgow Kiss;

Lynn Harvey reviews the fourth in Martin Walker's Bruno, Chief of Police series set in France: The Crowded Grave

and Maxine Clarke reviews Trust No One by Alex Walters (already known to Euro Crime readers as Michael Walters) which is set in Manchester (rather than Mongolia).

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by M K Bates, Laurent Binet, Patrick Easter, Karin Fossum, Christopher Fowler, Tom Grieves, Ewart Hutton, Arnaldur Indridason and Craig Russell have been added to these pages this week.

International Dagger Speculation (2012) & Pie Charts

Sorry these charts are a bit small. I've managed to create them using OpenOffice Calc and MS Paint.

I'm a bit obsessed with the International Dagger eligibles as books have begun arriving and that's what I'll be reading for the next 5 months. I've broken down my unofficial eligibles list into: by country and by gender (there is one male & female team). As you can see from the raw data table at the bottom the odds are slightly in favour of a male Swedish winner as has been the case for the previous two years, followed by an Italian male or Swedish female, but who can predict at this early stage?

Raw Data

NB. This is a snapshot of the eligibles list as of today which will no doubt change and doesn't take into account the instances where an author has more than one book eligible of which only one can be submitted eg Nesbo, Lackberg, Larsson, Eriksson, Kallentoft and Vichi.

OT: At least the apostrophe's there

Following on from last year's Miss Spell incident, today I spotted this new sign in the window of a "beauty" shop:

Publishing News: Paul Johnston & Jim Kelly

Severn House's new imprint Creme de la Crime is picking up a lot of well-known British authors. Coming soon are the fourth books in series by Paul Johnston and Jim Kelly.

It's been a seven year wait for The Silver Stain the fourth in Paul Johnston's Greece-set Alex Mavros series. In the intervening years, MIRA reissued the paperbacks of the first three, retitling the first, A Deeper Shade of Blue as Crying Blue Murder. The Silver Stain will be published on 29 December (UK) and 1 April 2012 (US).

Hired by a Hollywood film company to trace a missing employee in Crete, private investigator Alex Mavros is plunged into a vortex of hatred. The company is shooting a movie about the invasion of Crete by the Germans in 1941 - and their activities are stirring up old resentments among the islanders. The bitterness of the past bursts into the present when one of the film's consultants is found dead, hanged by the neck. Suicide - or murder Mavros investigates and is drawn into an ever-widening conspiracy.






No such long wait for fans of Jim Kelly's Shaw and Valentine series as it'll only have been a year since the last title, Death Toll. Death's Door, the fourth in the North Norfolk-set Shaw and Valentine series will be published on 26 January 2012 (UK) and 1 May 2012 (US)

On a hot August day in 1994, 76 holidaymakers travel to an island off the North Norfolk coast. Only 75 return alive - a young man is murdered, the case left unsolved. Twenty years later, using state-of-the-art forensics, the DNA results of a bloodsoaked towel prompts DI Peter Shaw to summon all 75 original suspects to a mass screening. but one of them, the beautiful Marianne Osbourne, is found dead in her bed. Is there a link to the 1994 murder DI Shaw and DS Valentine become immersed in the dark secrets of an isolated community.





These books should be easily available in your public library system. If you prefer to buy then there's usually a cheaper trade format edition a few months after the hardback release.

Retranslations, I'm picking up good vibrations..

There are several books being published with a new translation in the "Dagger year" ie June 2011 to May 2012 which are not eligible for consideration as they have already been published in English. So as not to lose them as it were, I'll be linking this post to the 2012 International Dagger eligibles list.

First up is Liza Marklund's The Bomber which, complete with "from the bestselling co-author of Postcard Killers" sticker will be published on 24 November by Corgi in a fresh translation by Neil Smith.

All she wants for Christmas...is to survive.

Seven days. Three killings. And one woman who knows too much...

Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is woken by a phonecall in the early hours of a wintry December morning. An explosion has ripped apart the Olympic Stadium. And a victim has been blown to pieces.

As Annika delves into the details of the bombing and the background of the victim, there is a second explosion. These chilling crimes could be her biggest news story yet. When her police source reveals they are hot on the heels of the bomber, Annika is guaranteed an exclusive with her name on it.

But she is uncovering too much, and soon finds herself the target of a deranged serial killer...

I've already listened to this one in the original 2002 translation by Kajsa Von Hofsten (which sounded like an American translation) and enjoyed it very much: my review.

Next up, are Per Wahlöö's two books featuring Chief Inspector Jensen: Murder on the Thirty-First Floor and The Steel Spring which were published with a translation by Joan Tate in the 1960s. Sarah Death's new translations will be published by Vintage on 15 December.

In an unnamed country, in an unnamed year sometime in the future, Chief Inspector Jensen of the Sixteenth Division is called in after the publishers controlling the entire country's newspapers and magazines receive a threat to blow up their building, in retaliation for a murder they are accused of committing. The building is evacuated, but the bomb fails to explode and Jensen is given seven days in which to track down the letter writer. Jensen has never had a case he could not solve before, but as his investigation into the identity of the letter writer begins it soon becomes clear that the directors of the publishers have their own secrets, not least the identity of the 'Special Department' on the thirty first floor; the only department not permitted to be evacuated after the bomb threat.






Chief Inspector Jensen is a policeman in an unnamed European country where the government has criminalised being drunk, even in private at home, and where the city centres have been demolished to devote more space to gleaming new roads. Recovering in a hospital room abroad after a liver transplant, Jensen receives a note instructing him to return home immediately, but when he reaches the airport he discovers that all flights home have been cancelled and all communication from within his homeland has ceased. One of the last messages sent requested urgent medical help from abroad and when Jensen is piloted across the border it soon becomes clear that an epidemic has ravaged the country.


Look out for the Wahlöös in a W H Smith's Scandi promotion after Christmas.

Finally, in February, Liza Marklund's Vanished from Corgi, which is Neil Smith translation of the book published in 2004 as Paradise.

Return of The Killing

The second series of The Killing will start on 26 19 November at 9pm on the wonderful BBC4. It looks like we're getting two hour chunks again as episodes 3 & 4 are on the following week.

It's been two years since former detective Sarah Lund was divested of her investigative role and transferred to a low-key job in the country, but when the body of a female lawyer is found murdered in macabre and puzzling circumstances, Lund's former boss at Copenhagen police HQ finds that he has no choice but to call her back in to assist with the investigation.

Initially reluctant, Lund soon becomes engrossed with the case. As police grapple with what few clues they possess, newly appointed Minister for Justice Thomas Buch strives to oversee some intricate political negotiations between parliamentary parties over the introduction of a series of new anti-terrorism laws. At the same time, soldier Jens Peter Raben awaits release from the psychiatric ward he was committed to following a nervous breakdown.

Over the course of 10 gripping episodes, the worlds of crime, politics and the military become increasingly intertwined. With more dead being added to the list of murder victims as the series progresses, Lund's mission becomes a race against time to find the culprit and prevent further killings...

Here's a wordless trailer:

New Reviews: Anderson, Glynn, Hill, James, Nesser, Perry, Pryce

Here are this week's new reviews:

Lynn Harvey reviews the seventh (or eighth if you count the novella) in the Rhona MacLeod forensic scientist series from Lin Anderson: The Reborn and gives it a very strong thumbs-up;

Terry Halligan reviews Alan Glynn's Bloodland which he enjoyed very much;

Sarah Hilary reviews Susan Hill's latest Simon Serrailler, The Betrayal of Trust which deals with both a cold murder case and the issue of assisted dying;

[Professor] Michelle Peckham thinks that Peter James's standalone Perfect People is an interesting read though it is more science fiction than crime fiction;

Maxine Clarke reviews the latest in the 'Van Veeteren' series by Hakan Nesser, The Unlucky Lottery, tr. Laurie Thompson though it's his sidekick Munster who leads the investigation this time;

Rich Westwood reviews the twenty-seventh in the Pitt series by Anne Perry: Dorchester Terrace and suggests readers new to Perry, might want to start a bit earlier in the series

and Susan White reviews Malcolm Pryce's latest Aberystwyth Noir - The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by M C Beaton, Helen Black, Xavier-Marie Bonnot, Stephen Booth, William Brodrick, Sam Christer, James Craig, Adam Creed, Judith Cutler, Hannah Dennison, Paul Doherty, Carola Dunn, Giorgio Faletti, Caryl Ferey, Alex Gray, M R Hall, Patricia Hall, John Harvey, Paul Johnston, Jim Kelly, Graeme/G W Kent, Marek Krajewski, Roberta Kray, T S Learner, Donna Leon, Peter Leonard, David Mark, Edward Marston, Andrew Martin, Alex Marwood, Peter May, Kathleen McCaul, Matt McGuire, Danny Miller, Ian Morson, R T Raichev, Roz Southey, Gunnar Staalesen, Lyndon Stacey, Cath Staincliffe, D J Taylor, M J Trow, Nicola Upson, Laura Wilson, Jacqueline Winspear, Simon Wood and Tom Wood have been added to these pages this week.

The Redeemed - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US, Canadian and UK covers for M R Hall's The Redeemed which is about to come out in UK paperback with a new look for the series. The fourth book in the series, The Flight, (Feb 2012) has a similar feel to below.

So what are your thoughts on the US (LHS), Canadian (RHS), UK (HB & pb below) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with the books of M R Hall?

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

Read the Euro Crime review by Maxine of The Redeemed.

More Tudor Crime - M J Trow

I've mentioned the increasing number of books set in Tudor times. M J Trow, author of 2001's Who Killed Kit Marlowe? A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England and the crime series featuring Lestrade and Maxwell (the latter being very popular in my library) has begun a new series featuring one Christopher "Kit" Marlowe under Severn House's Creme de la Crime imprint. The first book, Dark Entry came out in May and the second, Silent Court, will be out in December.

Cambridge, 1583. About to graduate from Corpus Christi, the young Christopher Marlowe spends his days studying and his nights carousing with old friends. But when one of them is discovered lying dead in his King's College room, mouth open in a silent scream, Marlowe refuses to accept the official verdict of suicide. Calling on the help of his mentor, Sir Roger Manwood, Justice of the Peace, and the queen's magus, Dr John Dee, a poison expert, Marlowe sets out to prove that his friend was murdered . . .

Dr John Dee also appears in Phil Rickman's new series which began with The Bones of Avalon.

Severn House's books are stocked in libraries (and the slightly cheaper trade paperback and Kindle versions appear to be available a few months after the hardback release).

Without You - Coming Soon to ITV1

According to my tv guide, ITV1 will be showing Without You next month. Without You is a two-part drama based on Nicci French's What to Do When Someone Dies and stars Anna Friel and Marc Warren. Here's the tv programme blurb:

School teacher Ellie Manning and her husband Greg are trying for a baby. One evening Greg doesn't return home from work and when the police knock on the door, Ellie is horrified to learn he has been killed in a terrible car accident. The police tell Ellie that Greg wasn't alone, a woman sitting in the passenger seat was also killed. A tormented Ellie begins to question: who is the mystery woman and was Greg having a secret affair?

Drowning in grief yet unable to accept Greg's infidelity, Ellie sets out to prove it to her sceptical friends and family. She borrows her best friend's identity to infiltrate the mystery woman's workplace and leaves no rock unturned to find out the truth, even if it puts her own life at risk.

Publishing Deal - Alexander Söderberg

I hung back from posting about this for a while as it wasn't immediately clear if this was a crime trilogy (though would all the fuss be about something you couldn't tag with the phrase "new Stieg Larsson/Jo Nesbo"?) however more news has come out clarifying the matter. Plus it's just been announced that the UK rights have been bought by Harvill Secker:

From Booktrade

Liz Foley at Harvill Secker has acquired UK and Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to Swedish trilogy THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND by Alexander Söderberg, in a deal with agent Leyla Belle Drake from the Sweden-based Salmonsson Agency. The deal is part of a group Random House world English-language deal which will see Crown publish in the USA and Random House of Canada in Canada in spring 2013. The novel was hailed as the book of the Frankfurt book fair with rights already sold in hotly contested auctions in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Norway and Denmark.

THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND is the first book in a trilogy following Sophie, an ordinary Swedish woman, a nurse and single mother, who gets dragged into an incendiary conflict between two powerful crime syndicates and a group of corrupt police officers.

and from Publishers Weekly:

The series, which is set in Sweden, follows a nurse and single mother who is thrust in the middle of a showdown between two powerful criminals, as well as a group of corrupt cops. Not surprisingly, Crown is pitching Soderberg as the next big Scandinavian literary star.

The Silence - Trailer

I was recently invited to an early showing of The Silence, based on Jan Costin Wagner's novel Silence. Unfortunately I couldn't attend but it is now on at a couple of cinemas in London: the Odeon in Panton Street and the Greenwich Picture House. I'm not sure if it's on anywhere else at the moment.

Silence is the second book in the Kimmo Joentaa series but for the film the setting has been moved from Finland to Germany.

It's quite a gruelling read, which you can see from the trailer:

New Reviews: Birkegaard, Briscoe, Child, Dugdall, Fleming, McCrery

Closing soon: October's Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

With the first of two books this week which may not be for the squeamish is Rich Westwood with his review of Mikkel Birkegaard's Death Sentence, tr. Charlotte Barslund;

Susan White reviews The Accused by Constance Briscoe her crime debut, already well-known as the author of the autobiographical Ugly;

Lynn Harvey reviews Lee Child's The Affair which takes Jack Reacher back to the beginning of his loner career;

Maxine Clarke reviews the CWA Award Winner, Ruth Dugdall's The Sacrificial Man;

Terry Halligan reviews James Fleming's conclusion to his Charlie Doig trilogy, Rising Blood

and Amanda Gillies reviews the second of the two books not for the faint-hearted: Nigel McCrery's Scream the third in the DCI Lapslie series set in Essex which is available in paperback.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by David Belbin, Alex Connor, Ruth Dugdall, Paulus Hochgatterer, Bill Kitson, Alexander McCall Smith, Alexander Soderberg, Dag Solstad, Ferdinand von Schirach and Tom Winship have been added to these pages this week.

Event News: Crime Scene: Europe (NYC)

If you can't make the upcoming Crime Across the Continent event in London then perhaps you can get to New York's Crime Scene: Europe, an enticing collection of literary and film presentations between 15 and 20 November. I've been sent a shortened version of the press release:

Europe is in the midst of a crime wave—a surge of creative and innovative detective fiction that pays its respects to the traditions of noir while incorporating the psychological novel, the political thriller, and the border-crossings that reflect the increasingly globalized culture of the EU. The eighth annual New Literature from Europe Festival organized by eight European Cultural Institutes in New York, will present a series of readings and discussions in Manhattan and Brooklyn from November 15-17, 2011, with writers Caryl Férey (France), Zygmunt Miłoszewski (Poland), Ana Maria Sandu (Romania), Stefan Slupetzky (Austria), José Carlos Somoza (Spain), and Jan Costin Wagner (Germany), joined by U.S. guest author Dan Fesperman.

A special film series complements this year’s spoken word programs, featuring both adaptations of crime novels and new approaches to the genre that play with the conventions of film noir. Presented in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image from November 18-20, 2011, the series ranges from Czech and Austrian films of the ‘40s and the early ‘50s rarely seen in the U.S., to contemporary productions from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania, including the critically acclaimed works Aurora by Cristi Puiu and The Double Hour by Giuseppe Capotondi. Authors Zygmunt Miloszewski and Jan Costin Wagner will be present to discuss film versions of their novels featured in the Festival.

All literary events are free and open to the public. For tickets for the film screenings, visit www.movingimage.us.

You can read a longer version of the press release with authors bios here.

You can follow New Literature from Europe on Facebook.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & Empire & Clothing

I've very recently read Mark Kermode's The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex in which he devotes a whole chapter (and there're only 6 so it's a good portion of the book) to the plight of films not in the English language and those usually dreadful, misguided English-language remakes. He also asks, when was the last time you saw a "foreign language" film gracing the front cover of a film magazine like Empire. In the book he can't think of an example however he may have discovered once since, I don't know. He also complained how his announcing the BAFTA (for Film Not In The English Language) for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was cut from the BBC's programme as though it was of little interest.

Compare these points with the current cover of Empire and its coverage of "the film event of the year".


Plus I don't know what Dr K will think of Julian Sands' involvement.

Thanks to Petrona for the Empire cover suggestion.

And...just in from the Guardian... H&M have a new clothing range inspired by Lisbeth Salander:

Separated at Birth?

One of these is a British pop star and the other a well-known Swedish actor:

Event News: Crime across the Continent

On Friday 18 November there is a fabulously enticing day of lectures for anyone interested in translated crime fiction, at the British Library. One of Euro Crime's favourite translators will be speaking. Here's the programme:

This study day, organised by the European Studies department of the British Library, explores contemporary crime fiction from across Continental Europe.

The speakers will include academics, publishers, writers and translators. Among the topics covered will be crime fiction as a vehicle for social and political analysis, both contemporary and historical, and the part crime fiction has to play in the transmission of European cultures. The day is principally as a seminar for researchers but the contributions will appeal to an audience of specialists and non-specialists.

Programme

09:30-10:00 Registration

10:00-11:15 Beyond the whodunnit

Chair: Christopher MacLehose, MacLehose Press
Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College, London), Crime and Happiness: Scandinavian Crime Fiction and End of the Welfare State.
Aka Morchiladze, Crime fiction as device.
Angela Kimyongür (University of Hull), Dominique Manotti and the roman noir.

Break

11:30-13:15 Looking back at history

Chair: Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
Giuliana Pieri (Royal Holloway, London), Camilleri’s “historical” crime novels: Sicily, Italy and the Risorgiment.
Olga Sobolev (London School of Economics), Boris Akunin and the Rise of Russian Detective Genre.
Claire Gorrara (Cardiff University), Past crimes, present memories: French crime fiction and the Second World War.
Danusia Stok, The force of setting in the fiction of Marek Krajewski.

Lunch

14:15-15:00 The Scandinavian Crime Fiction Phenomenon

Barry Forshaw, Through a Glass Darkly: Mankell, Larsson and Nesbø.

Break

15:30-17:15 Translating cultures/languages

Chair: Ros Schwarz
Gary Pulsifer (Arcadia Books), EuroCrime in the wake of the Nordic Invasion.
Amanda Hopkinson (City University), Catalan cops and Spanish seductions: making crime pay.
Gunnar Staalesen and Don Bartlett (courtesy of the Royal Norwegian Embassy), From Norway to Norfolk; author and translator in conversation.

I'm very tempted to go, though I worry I'll be out of my depth!

Book a place (the price is £20) via the British Library's website.

Website Updates - October

Unfortunately there won't be any new reviews this weekend as I'm not around but last night I refreshed the website and added extra countries to the bibliographies page. These country listings are based on the author's place of birth, rather than where they are now living or any new nationality they may have taken or the country they are writing about, which may be different to where they were born.

Website Update

State of play at 20.10.11:

The Bibliographies page now has more authors by 'Countries', plus I've removed the 'Eastern Europe' catch-all and put in the individual countries.

The Author Websites page now lists 906 sites.

The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated (added since last weekend: Tom Benn, Jane Casey, Michael J Malone, VM Whitworth and Felicity Young).

In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1691 authors (8680 titles with links to 2090 reviews):

I've added new bibliographies for: Tom Benn, Philip Carter, Patrick Conrad, Dean Crawford, Bernhard Jaumann, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, Vilmos Kondor, Selma Lagerlof, Rosamund Lupton, Mark Mackay, Michael J Malone, D E Meredith, A D Miller, Mark Peterson, Sam Ripley, Norman Russell, Alex Sharp, Christopher Wallace, Jan Wallentin and V M Whitworth..

I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Harry Bingham, S J Bolton, Gyles Brandreth, Simon Brett, Declan Burke, Jane Casey, Agatha Christie, Michael Cordy, Elisabeth J Duncan, Gordon Ferris, Elly Griffiths, Lucretia Grindle, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Maxim Jakubowski, P D James, Peter James, Tobias Jones, Mons Kallentoft, Christobel Kent, Barry Maitland, J D Mallinson, Liza Marklund, Glenn Meade, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Martin O'Brien, Anne Perry, Matt Benyon Rees, Phil Rickman, Michael Ridpath, Jarkko Sipila, Anna Smith, Cath Staincliffe and Felicity Young.

If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.

Snow Angels - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for James Thompson's Finland-set Snow Angels.

So what are your thoughts on the US (LHS - complete with "If You liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you'll love this!" sticker)) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with this title?

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

Read the Euro Crime review by Terry of Snow Angels.

New Reviews: Brandreth, Cain, Franklin, Kallentoft, Leonard, Rimington, Smith

October's Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Susan White reviews Gyles Brandreth's fourth book featuring Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (US title is Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders);

Rich Westwood reviews Tom Cain's Dictator also the fourth in the series;

Lynn Harvey reviews the fourth and last Adelia Aguilar from the late Ariana Franklin which is now out in paperback, The Assassin's Prayer (US title is A Murderous Procession);

Maxine Clarke reviews the first in the Superintendent Malin Fors series from Mons Kallentoft: Midwinter Sacrifice, tr. Neil Smith;

Terry Halligan reviews Peter Leonard's All He Saw Was The Girl, set in Rome;

Lizzie Hayes reviews Stella Rimington's Rip Tide, the sixth in the Liz Carlyle MI5/6 series

and Amanda Gillies reviews the first of Anna Smith's new series, The Dead Won't Sleep, set in Glasgow.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Gordon Ferris, Mons Kallentoft, Matt Benyon Rees, Michael Ridpath, Anna Smith and Jan Wallentin have been added to these pages this week.

Ellis Peters Historical Award - Shortlist

Thanks to Crime Scraps, I hear that the Ellis Peters Historical Award Shortlist has been announced. Here are the six contenders, with links to reviews on Euro Crime:

The Crime Writers’ Association has announced the shortlist for this year’s prestigious Ellis Peters Historical Award. The six books on the shortlist are:

Rory Clements Prince (John Murray)
Sam Eastland The Red Coffin (Faber & Faber)
Gordon Ferris The Hanging Shed (Corvus)
Andrew Martin The Somme Stations (Faber & Faber)
RN Morris The Cleansing Flames (Faber & Faber)
Imogen Robertson Island of Bones (Headline)

CWA chair Peter James said: “Historical fiction remains as popular as ever and has seen the creation of some of crime writing’s most enduring characters. This year’s books continue that fine tradition.“

The winner will be announced on November 30 at the Athenaeum in London.

Read more about each book on the CWA website.

More Ways to Own the Millennium Trilogy

News of two new editions of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy have come my way this week. Firstly a press release from MacLehose/Quercus about this luxury edition which comes with a doodle:

MacLehose Press are delighted to announce that a special, leather and stud bound, one-off boxed set edition of the MILLENNIUM TRILOGY will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on the 15th Dec to help raise money for Stieg Larsson’s magazine, Expo.


The Boxed set includes the letter of rejection from the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism in Stockholm to applicant 493 [Stieg Larsson] and features a charming doodle by Stieg Larsson on the back of the letter.

Part of the letter is visible in this recent Guardian article.

You can read the whole Sotherby's press release (pdf) on the Euro Crime website.

The second bit of news comes from Publishers Weekly regarding graphic novel versions of the three books:

Working in conjunction with the estate of Stieg Larsson and the Hedlund Literary Agency, DC Entertainment and its Vertigo imprint will adapt Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy novels—the books have sold more than 60 million copies— into a series of graphic novels. Each book in the trilogy will be adapted into two graphic novel volumes available in print and digital formats. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel volumes will be released in 2012 and graphic adaptations of The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nests will be released in 2014.

Dan DiDio, copublisher of DC Entertaiment, parent company of DC Comics/Vertigo, said, “The intricate characters and stories Larsson created in the Millennium Trilogy are a perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways.”

“Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page,” said Joakim Larsson, younger brother of the journalist and novelist, who died in 2004.

And finally, here's the jacket of the US-film-tie-in edition which will be available from 27 October, the film is out 26 December:

Review: Doctor Who: The Eye of the Jungle by Darren Jones (audio book)

Doctor Who: The Eye of the Jungle by Darren Jones, read by David Troughton (AudioGO, July 2011, 2 CDs (1hr 30mins), ISBN: 9781408468159)

In The Eye of the Jungle the Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the Amazonian jungle in 1827. Shortly after leaving the TARDIS they are surrounded by crocodiles. They are saved by Oliver Blazington, a mercenary/hunter who is there to capture animals for his boss Garrett who will subsequently exhibit them at London Zoo. However the locals are restless as domestic animals and people are disappearing and the priest's housekeeper refers to an "Eye" that seems to be involved.

Needless to say, the time-travellers soon discover the Eye for themselves and must save themselves from a fate worse than death...

This is an entertaining adventure, revealing the Doctor's empathy for not just humans but other animals too and he maintains his refusal to be used as a weapon by those who are taking the missing life-forms. I loved the fact that cd1 ended on a cliff-hanger worthy of classic Doctor Who tv episodes. Also that Amy and Rory don't require saving, rather the reverse.

David Troughton, son of 2nd Doctor, Patrick, and who appeared himself in the 10th Doctor episode Midnight takes over the narration duties this time round. His Doctor doesn't sound much like Matt Smith but does sound similar to Clive Mantle's Doctor in The Coming of the Terraphiles; his Amy is a bit wobbly but he does get Rory's inflection down to a T. Impersonations, intended or otherwise, aside he does a good job with the story-telling.

The sound-effects continue to improve. In the early days there was nothing, that was replaced by a smidge of music but now if someone drops something you hear a clang. They don't overpower the narrator this time round, which has been a complaint of mine before.

The Eye of the Jungle is a solid adventure in this series of "exclusive" audio adventures. My personal favourite so far has been The Runaway Train narrated by Matt Smith and the least engaging has been, The Ring of Steel which though narrated well by Arthur Darvill, has a run-of-the-mill story. (NB. I still have a couple more to listen to.)

Winners: CWA Awards (Gold, Fleming, Creasey), TV & Film Daggers 2011

The winners of the second round of CWA Daggers were announced on Friday night. Quotes from the winners can be found on the press release and more information is available on the CWA's website. The TV and Film Dagger winners are also listed below.

CWA GOLD DAGGER 2011

• Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Pan) - WINNER
• Snowdrops by A.D Miller (Atlantic Books)
• The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (Orion)
• The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER 2011, SPONSORED BY IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS LTD

• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday)
• Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)
• The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Corvus)
• The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion) - WINNER

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER 2011

• Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday) - WINNER
• Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller (Robinson)
• The Dead Woman of Juárez by Sam Hawken (Serpent’s Tail)
• The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)

ITV3 PEOPLE’S BESTSELLER DAGGER 2011

• David Baldacci - The Sixth Man (Macmillan)
• Lee Child - Worth Dying For (Bantam)
• Mark Billingham - Good As Dead (Little, Brown) (pub. 18.8.11)
• Peter James - Dead Man’s Grip (Macmillan) - WINNER
• Peter Robinson - Before the Poison (Hodder) (pub. 18.8.11)
  

THE FILM DAGGER

True Grit (Paramount Pictures) - WINNER
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Momentum Pictures)
Brighton Rock (Optimum Releasing)
Source Code (Optimum Releasing)

THE TV DAGGER

Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One) - WINNER
Luther (BBC One)
The Shadow Line (Company Pictures, BBC Two)
Zen (Left Bank Pictures, BBC One)
Vera (ITV Studios, ITV1)

THE INTERNATIONAL TV DAGGER

The Killing, (Arrow Films, BBC4) - WINNER
Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Castle (ABC Studios, Alibi)
Dexter (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)
Spiral (Son Et Lumiere, BBC 4)

BEST ACTRESS DAGGER

Sofie Gråbøl for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC4) - WINNER
Brenda Blethyn for Vera (ITV Studios, ITV1)
Maxine Peake for Silk (BBC One)
Olivia Williams for Case Sensitive (Hat Trick Productions, ITV1)
Sue Johnston for Waking the Dead (BBC One)
Kelly Reilly for Above Suspicion (La Plante Productions, ITV1)

BEST ACTOR DAGGER

Idris Elba for Luther (BBC One) - WINNER
Lars Mikkelsen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC4)
Steve Buscemi for Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Jason Isaacs for Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)
Rufus Sewell for Zen (Left Bank Pictures, BBC One)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR DAGGER

Rafe Spall for The Shadow Line (Company Pictures, BBC Two) - WINNER
Bjarne Henriksen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)
Søren Malling for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)
John Lithgow for Dexter (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)
Aidan Gillen for Thorne (Stagereel / Cité Amérique, Sky One)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS DAGGER

Ann Eleonora Jørgensen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4) - WINNER
Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Ruth Wilson for Luther (BBC One)
Amanda Abbington for Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)
Tara Fitzgerald for Waking The Dead (BBC One)

Author to look out for - Dror Mishani

There was a brief mention in Publishers Lunch (Publisher's Weekly) of a US deal for Dror Mishani's Missing File, the first in a new Israeli series featuring Inspector Abraham Abraham, which I believe will be in translation. More information is behind the paywall but it does seem that the UK rights have been bought, possibly by Picador.

Synopsis taken from the Liepman International Rights Catalogue:
Sixteen-year-old Ofer, who left his home in Holon one morning on his way to school, disappeared without leaving a trace. Police inspector Abraham Abraham, guilt-ridden and determined to find the missing boy, is gradually consumed by the frustrating investigation that takes over his life. It seems that the more he finds out about the boy and his life, the further he gets from the truth. And only one man, Ofer’s older neighbour and private teacher Zeev Avni, has something to tell him. But will the neighbour’s strange story save the investigation before it’s too late?

One to look out for I think...

New Reviews: Bayard, Cotterill, Durbridge, Hannah, McDermid, Neville, Ohlsson & New Competition

New Competition: Win a copy of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner (UK only)

Here are this week's new reviews:

Amanda Gillies reviews Louis Bayard's The School of Night set in modern day, and Elizabethan England;

Lynn Harvey reviews Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat which is now out in paperback and she makes an unexpected comparison with a well-known US series...;

I review the audio version of Francis Durbridge's Tim Frazer Again read by Anthony Head;

Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage which is now out in paperback, and which reminded her of Barbara Vine's earlier work;

Maxine Clarke reviews the new Tony Hill-Carol Jordan from Val McDermid, The Retribution;

Terry Halligan reviews Stuart Neville's debut, The Twelve aka The Ghosts of Belfast (US) which he thought was brilliant and original

and I also review the debut from Kristina Ohlsson: Unwanted, tr. Sarah Death which is gripping despite being a bit predictable.

Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Declan Burke, Patrick Conrad, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, J D Mallinson, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Sam Ripley and Norman Russell have been added to these pages this week.

Win: Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner

Euro Crime has 10 copies of Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner to giveaway. To enter the draw, just answer the question and include your details in the form below.

This competition is open to UK residents and will close on 31 October 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)

Why would anyone strangle a humble seamstress with no known enemies? When newly-married bookseller Victor Legris is asked to solve the murder of Louise Fontaine in the abattoir district of La Villette, he is initially baffled by the case. But as the investigation progresses, Victor, along with his assistant and brother-in-law Joseph, discovers that in belle-époque Paris young girls with no money or background are as ruthlessly preyed on as ever they were...

The Killing T-Shirts

I've stumbled over these The Killing inspired t-shirts over at Den of Geek (where I read my Dr Who reviews!). Available in different colours and sizes, I'm tempted by the removal van one!
Browse the range/order here.

Philip Kerr's non Bernie Project

Philip Kerr's latest and eighth Bernie Gunther book, Prague Fatale will be out later this month. He has another iron in the fire in the shape of writing a script for a Princess Diana bio-pic. From The Guardian:

Producer Stephen Evans, whose previous credits include The Madness of King George and The Wings of the Dove, is planning a $50m film about the princess, and has hired Ken Wharfe, Diana's former head of private security, and her former private secretary, Commander Patrick Jephson, to provide authenticity. No one has yet been cast in the lead role, nor has a director been attached, but Evans has commissioned a script from crime novelist Philip Kerr.

The project has been in development for two years, and apparently will focus on the difficult period of her life during her marriage to Prince Charles and their subsequent divorce in 1996 – but will not tackle her relationship with Dodi al-Fayed.

Read the whole article here.

Competition Winners March 2011 - September 2011

Here are details of who won what in the last few months' Euro Crime competitions:

March 2011

The 5 winners of a signed copy of Complicit by Nicci French were:

Claire Butler
Simon Gibson
Diane Moston
Alison Shinn
Gemma Wyatt

The 5 winners of a copy of From the Dead by Mark Billingham were:

Johannah (from Slough)
Victoria Boland
Mathew Harvey
Nicky Stevens
Richard Whittington

April 2011

The 5 winners of a set of Van Veeteren novels by Hakan Nesser were:

Sharisse de Silva
Rosie Dharamsi
Graham Nichols
Carol Phile
James Spicer

The 6 winners of a copy of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin were:

Lisa Ellison
Lynda Jones
Elizabeth Osbourne
Lynda Sanderson
Karen Watson
Paul Witney

May 2011

The 5 winners of a copy of Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey were:

Melissa Hall
Roma Pearshouse
Kerry Sabel
Tina Smith
Laura Westwood

June 2011

The winner of a set of books by S J Bolton was:

Paul Holt

July 2011

The 5 winners of a set of 3 books by Armand Cabasson were:

Janine Atkin
Jennifer Bell
Amy Hobbs
James Holyland
Hazel Rush

No competitions in August and September 2011

Review: Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge (audio book)

Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge read by Anthony Head (AudioGO, September 2011, ISBN: 9781408469682, 2 CDs (2hr 20 mins))

I've previously reviewed an audio book featuring Francis Durbridge's famous creation Paul Temple: Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in which a writer turns sleuth in the upper end of society. Tim Frazer's isn't quite so high-brow.

Frazer is an engineer who has recently begun working for a secret police/Government department. In this, his second case, he is sent to Amsterdam to shadow Barbara Day. Barbara Day recently ran over and killed a British agent, Leo Salinger, on one of her regular trips to Amsterdam. Was it an accident of something more sinister?

Frazer carries out his assignment and makes an impression. So much so, that when he is back in London he gets embroiled in Barbara's personal and professional life, and when he finds a dead body in her living room, things become quite tricky for him. Even when Frazer has completed his task of finding out whether Salinger was involved in shady dealings or not, he can't let the mystery rest and carries on to the bitter end risking his heart and his life...

This is a complicated story with many twists and turns which kept me hooked. It's action-packed with fights, dangerous men, and a hidden baddie who instils mortal fear in his underlings. Written in the 1960s we see the quaint use of telephone boxes rather than disposable mobile phones. I really enjoyed Tim Frazer Again and Buffy and Merlin's Anthony Head narrates very well with a variety of convincing accents and a low breathy voice for Barbara Day. He also plays Tim Frazer in 2010's The World of Tim Frazer and I'll be looking out for his Paul Temple audio books too.

Recorder Reminder - Romanzo Criminale

I didn't realise my Sky package included Sky Arts until a few days ago and annoyingly just missed the opportunity to record the original Insomnia but I am in time to set my Sky+ for the series of Romanzo Criminale which starts tomorrow night at 9pm on Sky Arts:

Set in Rome during the 1970s, Romanzo Criminale (Crime Novel) is based on the award-winning film of the same name which tells the true story of the Banda della Magia, the prolific and bloodthirsty crime family in Italy who were responsible for some of the most violent crimes the country had ever seen.

Romanzo Criminale first burst into the world as a gut-wrenching crime novel by Roman judge, novelist and scriptwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo. After becoming a cult novel in Italy, it was turned into a hit feature film which was the recipient of countless awards including an Italian Golden Globe. The series was also a huge success in Italy, with critics praising it as “The only Italian series of which we can be proud,” while leading newspaper La Stampa called it “the best television series ever produced in Italy.”

Political murders, spectacular bombing and high-profile kidnappings, the story is set in the violent underworld of Rome, a patchwork of petty gangs and small-time crooks where one young man, known only as The Lebanese, dreams of rising to the top of the pack. As he proves himself through a series of brutal crimes, he makes valuable connections among corrupt cops and politicians, and in the Secret Service, which seeks to enlist the gang to destabilize the government and provoke a right-wing coup.

Pitted against the world of women, drugs, gambling and clubs of The Lebanese and his cohorts is the young idealistic police inspector Nicola Scialoja. Seemingly the one man not in the pay or pocket of the Mafia or the corrupt State, Scialoja is determined to bring the ferocious gang to justice, whatever the cost to himself or to the rules of the law.

New Reviews: Billingham, Burke, Chance, Christie, Larsson, Magson, Rayne, Sharp, Stark & Competition

And the reviews are back! A slightly longer break than I'd anticipated due to family matters but 9 new reviews follow below plus a very short-term competition to win tickets to meet actors from The Killing (Danish version) at The Scandinavia Show next Sunday. I have 4 tickets to giveaway, just enter a few details in this form.

Here are this week's (globe-trotting) reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews the tenth in the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham, Good as Dead;

Laura Root reviews Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the Twenty-First Century edited by Declan Burke an "anthology of essays and short stories centred on Irish crime writing";

Lynn Harvey reviews Alex Chance's second thriller, now out in mass market paperback Savage Blood which she describes as "Denis Wheatley meets Dan Brown";

I review the audio version of two recently unearthed Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball which are read by David Suchet;

Maxine Clarke reviews the long-awaited fourth book in translation by Asa Larsson: Until Thy Wrath Be Past, tr. Laurie Thompson which Maxine sums up in one word: "brilliant";

Terry Halligan reviews the second in Adrian Magson's 1960s France-set DI Rocco series, Death on the Rive Nord and he hopes for more in the series;

Amanda Gillies praises highly Sarah Rayne's latest psychological thriller, What Lies Beneath now out in paperback;

The first of two books set in the US written by UK authors is Alex Sharp's Driver: Nemesis, set in New Orleans; it's based on a computer game and written pseudonymously by an "English thriller writer" and reviewed here by Rich Westwood

and the second is Oliver Stark's 88 Killer, his second book set in New York City and which Michelle Peckham found "absorbing".

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