BBC2 Crime Writing Series (for "celebrities")

Will the reality show madness never end...From Digital Spy:

Brendan Cole is to star in a new reality show which teaches celebrities to become crime writers.

The Strictly Come Dancing regular will join former Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie and four other stars in BBC Two's Murder Most Famous.

The group will be given writing tasks while being taught how to solve crimes with help from psychologists and police.

Best-selling author Minette Walters has signed up to be a mentor on the show and will have the power to oust a celebrity at the end of each day.

The winner will pen their own crime novel to be published by PanMacmillan on next year's World Book Day.

Murder Most Famous will air on BBC Two over five afternoons in March.

I had assumed the Cole being referred to in the Digital Spy headline was Martina!

European Authors nominated for Edgar Awards

The nominees for the 2008 Edgar Awards were announced a few days ago. British/European interests are as follows:

Best Novel
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
Priest by Ken Bruen

Best First Novel By An American Author
In the Woods by Tana French. (hands up who knew she was born in Vermont and not Ireland?)

Best Paperback Original
Who is Conrad Hirst? by Kevin Wignall

Best Television Episode Teleplay
"Yahrzeit" - Waking the Dead, Teleplay by Declan Croghan & Barbara Machin

The full list of nominees is here.

Ashes to Ashes..coming soon to BBC1

The BBC is gearing up for the launch of Ashes to Ashes (the 'sequel' to Life on Mars) in February. The trailer was shown before last night's Messiah and a BBC webpage is already up. You can watch the trailer here.

Even though the show's not even started yet, the press reviews have begun...The Times isn't too impressed. Digital Spy also give their verdict (a contrary opinion to The Times).

New Reviews and Updates

Here are this week's new reviews, website updates and a reminder of January's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Maxine Clarke reviews The Dark Eye by Ingrid Black - a book which starts well but ultimately disappoints;

Maxine is also disappointed with the debut novel from Elena Forbes - Die With Me and gives the writer a tip for the next book...;

Terry Halligan rose to the challenge of the monumental girth of Elizabeth George's What Came Before He Shot Her and enjoyed it enormously;

I took on the minuscule girth of the middle part of the amazing De Luca series by Carlo Lucarelli - The Damned Season - a short book but with a lot packed into it

and Laura Root reviews Frank Tallis' Fatal Lies and finds it continues his high standard.


Other Website Updates

The News page has been updated.

The Authors page (a list of author homepages) now has 608 entries.

The New Releases pages have been updated.


Current Competition (closing date 31 January):

Win a copy of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

News page - updated again

I've added some more links to reviews in the UK papers to the News page.

Links include Joan Smith's review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in the Sunday Times and the review of Death at Dawn by Caro Peacock in The Times.

Gadding about this week (Quercus & Crimini)

This has been the week for book launches. Last Tuesday, Maxine and I attended the launch of Quercus' MacLehose imprint. The first offering from which was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

Ali (who took this photograph) has already comprehensively written up the proceedings on The Rap Sheet.





Then on Thursday we were off to the launch of Crimini, a collection of Italian noir short stories from Bitter Lemon Press. The short stories have been turned into a tv series also called Crimini and the evening began with a short clip from Diego Da Silva's entry, set in Naples. Then the bulk of the night was a panel of Crimini editor, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Frances Fyfield and Maxim Jakubowski. In a short intermission, the beginning of Romanzo Criminale was shown (De Cataldo wrote the book and was heavily involved in the film).

I took a few notes which are a bit disjointed:

Crime fiction is a relatively new genre in Italy. Carlo Lucarelli is considered the doyen of the genre. A second Crimini collection is planned with some new authors.

De Cataldo chose the authors for Crimini by asking his friends. He was later asked why there are no female authors in the collection but couldn't really answer that. Maxim stated that his forthcoming Rome Noir would have stories from three female writers, though, De Cataldo pointed out, only one is actually a crime writer.

Frances Fyfield said that American crime fiction taught her that you can have humour in a crime novel and she gave the example of Carl Hiaasen.

De Cataldo is a judge (and married to a lawyer "it happens") and Fyfield is a prosecutor. She said she felt priviledged to see other people's stories and always wanted to finish the stories off. Different professions would have led them to write different stories.

De Cataldo asked the Crimini authors to choose a place, a city and link it to the story, to the land. Camilleri - "the noble father" - said he couldn't write a Montalbano story as he'd written too many already. The book shows a very different side to the clichéd view of Italy.

For the tv series, to much audience amazement, the authors and screenwriters collaborated and agreed on how the story was to appear on screen. A character in Marcello Fois' story had to be changed from a politician to a manager. The tv series was well received critically and a second series is planned.

After the intermission, the discussion moved on to Romanzo Criminale. The Director's cut has 40 more minutes. The DVD was more successful than the film, all over Europe.

De Cataldo has written a follow-up to Romanzo Criminale with two of the characters from the original book. He has edited his original 700 pages to 350. Women have more importance in this one.

Neither book is available in English. Maxim said that the size of the Romanzo Criminale book and the current economics of publishing translated fiction were to blame.

There was some good news though, a tv series in collaboration with SKY began shooting last week. Different to the book and film but related somehow to Romanzo Criminale (I didn't catch that bit). It will be quite violent and viewers must be over 14.

De Cataldo also mentioned Quo Vadis, Baby? which started as a book, went on to be filmed and is now a tv series.
Details of the Crimini tv series can be found on the Italian tv channel RAI site and there are some videos and film stills. The video of the 'behind the scenes' is also viewable on YouTube. Also on YouTube is a clip from the Rapidamente episode (though I think this is just the scenes with Gabriella Pession!). The episodes are also available on Italian DVD but (not surprisingly) there aren't any English subtitles.

Is it too much to hope that BBC4 or Channel 4 will buy and subtitle the Crimini series...?

Website Update

I've updated the News page with links to recent reviews of Euro Crime titles (including two more of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and articles in the UK press.

The Importance of Being Consistent

Gyles Brandreth's Oscar Wilde series has just been published in the US. Whereas the UK title was Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders the US title is Oscar Wilde and a Death of No Importance.

You can read an excerpt from book 1 at the Simon and Schuster site.

The second book in the series also suffers the same fate. Due out in May, the UK title is Oscar Wilde and the Ring of Death and in September, the same book will come out in the US as Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder.

I really can't see why the titles need to be changed, both pairs of titles seem equally 'cozy'.

Just a few links...

The first part of Benjamin Black's fifteen part The Lemur is in the New York Times.

Heatseeker Reviews gives her opinion of Death at Dawn by Caro Ramsay (aka Gillian Linscott).

Crime Scraps has set a fiendishly difficult Winter Quiz...

and

Detectives Beyond Borders is the latest host of the Carnival of the Criminal Minds.

Review: 7th Heaven by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

I can't say that I've read much James Patterson; I really enjoyed Jack and Jill and both the Alex Cross films with Morgan Freeman but I hadn't read any of the Women's Murder Club series until I received a review copy of 7th Heaven.

Patterson is well known for his style of many short chapters and this one's no exception: 125 chapters in 376 pages, but for a slow reader like myself, I at least feel that I'm making quick progress.

The Women's Murder Club comprises Lindsay (police detective), Yuki (assistant district attorney), Claire (medical examiner) and Cindy (crime reporter) and as well as being best friends, their paths cross professionally during the two cases that need to be solved in 7th Heaven.

The first case is one dear to Lindsay's heart. The unsolved disappearance of Michael Campion, the sickly son of a former California Governor, is a high profile mystery, one that touched the hearts of all California and the rest of the US due to the young man being on tv, being so brave. An anonymous tip-off leads the police to a young prostitute who after much questioning confesses that Michael died on her and that she got her boyfriend to come over and cut the body up, later disposing of it in another town. Once 'lawyered up' however she retracts her confession but the case goes to trial and Yuki is the prosecutor.

The second case involves a pair of young men, robbing and burning down wealthy households with the owners still inside, the only clue they leave being cryptic messages in Latin inside a book.

Are the two cases related? Will they catch the arsonists? Will Yuki win her trial and where's the body of Michael Campion?

All these questions are answered and the suspense is kept high until the final pages. 7th Heaven is written in a brisk and clear style which hurts your arm more than your brain. I enjoy a good plot and this one qualifies in that category, in the main. I was less keen on the arson plot as the motivation for such terrible acts was very weak, however the Michael Campion plot was very intriguing with an interesting courtroom battle occurring for most of the book. As to the characters though, for one thing very little is provided on appearance; I mostly got that Lindsay and Cindy are blonde, Yuki has Japanese features and Claire is big and pregnant. Whether you get more descriptions in the earlier six books, I couldn't say. Lindsay and Yuki get most attention in this outing and are more fleshed out. Perhaps earlier books deal with the other two in more depth.

The bottom line is that I enjoyed it and would certainly read more of this series and rather regret not having already read the earlier ones.

7th Heaven was released yesterday. You can get better descriptions of the four women plus an interview with James Patterson at the new UK website.

The Women's Murder Club is now an ABC tv show, so maybe we'll see it on these shores at some point.

Borders online sans Amazon

Currently Borders online is linked to amazon.co.uk but not for much longer. According to today's Book Trade News...:

Gardners have been appointed as the fulfilment partner for the new Borders.co.uk website currently under construction pending a launch in March 2008. In addition to the fulfilment of orders for the entire range of physical books and audio books, Gardners will be providing the fulfilment for E-Books and Audio downloads from their new Digital Warehouse.

Geoff O'Neill, Head of Supply Chain for Borders UK Ltd commented, "Whilst Borders is a relatively late entrant into the online books market, we believe that in partnering with Gardners we will benefit from their many years of B2C experience and enable Borders to more quickly establish a significant presence in the market."

Gardners is "Britain's leading book wholesaler".

Messiah V - BBC1 20th January at 9pm

Marc Warren has taken over from Ken Stott (Rebus) as the lead detective.




From the BBC Press release:

Messiah returns to BBC One with Marc Warren (Hustle) heading up a new team on the hunt of a sadistic and meticulous killer in a story that is as dark and entertaining as ever.

The impressive new cast also includes Marsha Thomason (Lost) and Daniel Ryan (The Street) along with Nina Sosanya (Sorted), Niall Macgregor (Dalziel And Pascoe) and Rory Kinnear (Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk To Finchley).

In Messiah's fifth outing, a killer is intent on communicating a stark message to the world. It's a story inspired by prophecies from the world's three major religions.

Executive Producer, Robert Cooper feels that it's the rigorous attention to detail and creative storytelling that make this a classic Messiah tale.

He adds: "It's the ambition and scale of what powers the centre of the story – the biggest moment in the world's history – and how what it reveals is absolutely relevant to the world now."

It's also a personal story exploring the lives and troubled histories of the team trying to put an end to the nightmare.

Harry Bradbeer thinks this is central to creating an engrossing and believable story. He says:

"What you want – above all – is for your audience to be engaged in the characters, to care for them. And to be drawn into their fate."

New Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and a reminder of January's competition:

Latest Reviews:

Declan Burke reviews Saturday's Child by Ray Banks writing "Ray Banks offers us a glimpse of what Samuel Beckett might have read like had he turned his hand to crime fiction";

Fiona Walker reckons The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr is every bit as good as Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (so look out for that one on the International Dagger shortlist);

Maxine Clarke adds another Swedish author to her list of favourite writers after reading Unseen by Mari Jungstedt;

and she also enjoyed The Simian Curve by Mark Lalbeharry - a London based police procedural with a science angle

and Pat Austin gets the read she's long been waiting for with Manda Scott's The Crystal Skull which could be her 'read of the year'.


Current Competition (closing date 31 January):

Win a copy of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)

Favourite Audio Books - 2007

Last year, like 2006, I listened to 14 audio books so clearly a top ten is out of the question, however two of them came out with an 'A' grade:

Michael Dibdin - Back to Bologna
Barbara Nadel - A Passion for Killing

The narrators are respectively, Michael Tudor Barnes and Sean Barrett. Along with these two narrators I'd also recommend Tim Goodman (Bryant & May series by Christopher Fowler), Maggie Mash (anything) and David Rintoul (Inspector Sejer series by Karin Fossum).

Website Updates

Last night I updated the News page and also added Daily Mail crime reviewer, Carla McKay's top 5 Euro reads of 2007 to the top 2007 reads as rated by Euro Crime reviewers page. her choices were:

Carla Banks - Strangers
Mark Billingham - Death Message
Peter James - Not Dead Enough
Natasha Mostert - Season of the Witch
Ian Rankin - The Naming of the Dead

Ken's going to be busy...

Not only was it recently announced that Kenneth Branagh is to play C J Sansom's Shardlake then news comes via Digital Spy that he's also taking on the role of Kurt Wallander:

Kenneth Branagh has landed the role of a Swedish detective in a new BBC drama series.

The actor-director will play Kurt Wallander in the £6m production, based on the novels of Swedish writer Henning Mankell.

The 47-year-old will film three 90-minute episodes of Wallander, which is set in the town of Ystad in the Scandinavian country.

He told Broadcast magazine: "Wallander is a wonderfully complex and compelling character and I am excited to be playing this fascinatingly flawed but deeply human detective."

Producer Andy Harries said: "This is more than just a detective series. It's fantastic drama, great stories and an absolutely beautiful setting. Visually these films are going to be very strong. Ken Branagh is perfect for the title role."

The books depict Wallander as a detective in his fifties who is beset by problems including a failed marriage, excessive alcohol consumption and diabetes. He was sued for brutality during his early career and has been known to break the rules when he feels the situation demands it.

and from The Stage:

Each 90-minute episode is an adaptation of a different book from the Kurt Wallander Mysteries. The three chosen for the BBC series are One Step Behind, Firewall and Sidetracked.

More Forthcoming Book Lists

Well buoyed on by the success of forthcoming Scandinavian crime/mystery novels, I've created a couple more list on amazon.co.uk for French and Italian crime novels coming soon to a bookshelf near you:

Forthcoming French Crime novels in 2008 (amazon.co.uk)

Forthcoming Italian Crime novels in 2008 (amazon.co.uk) - a bit short at the moment but I'll add to it as I hear of more titles.

Sally Lockhart on DVD

I walked into W H Smiths this morning and almost collided with the display of empty DVD boxes of the two Sally Lockhart 'mysteries' which have been released today in a box set. I imagine that explains why neither episode has been repeated (strange for the BBC...**).

Amazon.co.uk and Play.com have the set for a shade under £13. DVD details from amazon:

DVD Description
This DVD includes two BBC adaptations - Ruby in the Smoke and Shadow in the North - from a series of novels by the award-winning author, Philip Pullman. The stories follow the courageous and vibrant young heroine, Sally Lockhart, played here by award-winning actress, Billie Piper, who is a 16-year-old sleuth in the Victorian era.

The first dramatization, was transmitted in December 2006 (to over 7 million viewers); the second, The Shadow in the North, aired on 30 December 2007.

The Ruby in the Smoke
Sally, recently orphaned, is alone and being hunted by an assassin. With her new friends - young photographer Frederick and quick-witted street child Jim - she must discover her father's killer. Facing them is an unseen, murderous opponent and at the heart of it all, the deadly, blood-drenched secret of the ruby in the smoke.

The Shadow in the North
Once again Pullman's much-loved and fearless heroine Sally Lockhart embarks on a mission – this time to find out why her elderly client's investment crashed and what links the clairvoyant's murderous vision to the rich industrialist, Bellmann.

**The Shadow in the North can be watched on the BBC iPlayer site for 3 more days only.

New Soho Imprint

Good news for American fans of British crime fiction as Soho Press are to publish some Constable and Robinson titles under their own imprint Soho Constable. From Publisher's Weekly:

Soho Press is launching a new mystery imprint this spring called Soho Constable. Set to start publishing in April, the imprint will be releasing mysteries just published across the pond by British house Constable & Robinson. The books, both historical and modern-day mysteries set predominantly in England and Scotland, are by such authors as Barbara Cleverly, R.T. Raichev and Roberta Kray.

While some of the imprint's authors were previously published in the U.S. by Carroll & Graf, Soho Constable will be releasing new titles by the writers, explained Soho Press publisher and editor-in-chief Laura Hruska. Hruska added that the print runs for the books will vary, ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 depending on the popularity of the writer. With plans to do what Hurska dubbed a "substantial list" each season--the second list will include nine titles--Hruska noted that the imprint will also, in the future, release some classic mysteries; the second list, for example, will include Peter Lovesey’s Sergeant Cribb series. Among the titles on the first list are Reconstruction by Mick Herron and The Rough Collier by Pat McIntosh.

Maybe they'll also print A Darker Side (out in May) - the book following my current read from Constable and Robinson, Into the Shadows, by Shirley Wells, set in the Lancashire Pennines. (I had to abandon The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz after 50 pages as it wasn't working for me! Great UK cover though.)

New Year Reviews

Here are this week's new reviews and details of January's competition:

Latest Reviews:

I review The Patience of the Spider by Andrea Camilleri which isn't one of the stronger ones in my opinion but still a good read;

Maxine Clarke reviews what could be the stand-out translated crime novel of the year: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson;

Donna Leon uber-fan, Norman Price, gives his verdict on Suffer the Little Children;

If Maxine's review of The Mystery Writer by Jessica Mann doesn't entice you to read it, then nothing will

and Pat Austin feels that Grace Monroe's Brodie McClennan series has potential, based on Dark Angels, once they get the Dan Brown nonsense out of their system.


Current Competition (closing date 31 January):

Win a copy of Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis (UK & Europe only)

(geographical restrictions are in brackets)