pps to Translated Delights in 2011

I've just added another title to the International Dagger Eligibles - the list is up to 49 now.

The title added is Hotel Bosphorus by Esmahan Aykol from Bitter Lemon Press in April 2011. Not only does it feature a crime bookshop owner but is also states on the cover "the first Kati Hirschel murder mystery" (there are three so far).

Kati Hirschel, in her thirties, is the proud owner of Istanbul’s only crime bookshop. When the German director of a film starring an old school friend is found murdered in his hotel room Kati cannot resist the temptation to start her own maverick investigation. After all her friend Petra is the police’s principal suspect and reading all those detective novels must have taught Kati something. This is a crime story but also a wonderful book about Istanbul and Turkish society. It uses humour, social commentary and even erotic fantasy to expose Western European prejudices about Turkey as well as Turkish stereotyping of other Europeans.

More translated delights can be found here and here.

OT: It's Cat-urday (inseparable duo)

Toffee and Nimes always seem to end up sharing the same space these days. I'm not sure if it shows a "fondness" for each other's company or that they are both after the same (best) spot. Plus Nimes just sits where he likes irrespective of what's already there:

What you doing 'ere?


Never mind, zzzz

Tally Ho - Cover Theme

I'm sure there are more of these. Do let me know if you know of any more.

Crime Authors in Galaxy Shortlists

The shortlists for the Galaxy awards have been announced and include a few crime titles, From The Bookseller:

Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Dead Like You Peter James (Macmillan)
The Ice Cream Girls Dorothy Koomson (Sphere)
Jump! Jilly Cooper (Bantam Press)
One Day David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Red Queen Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster)
Worth Dying For Lee Child (Bantam Press)

National Book Tokens New Writer of the Year
Patrick Barkham The Butterfly Isles (Granta Books)
Edmund de Waal The Hare with Amber Eyes (Chatto & Windus)
Katherine Webb The Legacy (Orion)
Rebecca Hunt Mr Chartwell (Fig Tree)
Natasha Solomons Mr Rosenblum's List (Sceptre)
Simon Lelic Rupture (Picador)

International Author of the Year
Colm Toibin Brooklyn (Penguin)
Jonathan Franzen Freedom (Fourth Estate)
Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (Quercus/MacLehose Press)
Kathryn Stockett The Help (Fig Tree)
Emma Donoghue Room (Picador)
Christos Tsiolkas The Slap (Tuskar Rock Press)

Waterstone's UK Author of the Year
Tom McCarthy C (Jonathan Cape)
Maggie O'Farrell The Hand That First Held Mine (Headline Review)
Kate Atkinson Started Early, Took My Dog (Doubleday)
David Mitchell The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Sceptre)
Rose Tremain Trespass (Chatto & Windus)
Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall (Fourth Estate)

The winners of the eight categories will be awarded on 10th November. The ceremony will be broadcast on More4 on 13th November, followed by five further tie-in shows in the run-up to Christmas.

ps to Translated Delights in 2011

The other day I posted a few highlights of 2011 in terms of translated crime. The Hodder & Stoughton catalogue arrived today and we have another Italian author to add to the list.

Marco Vichi's first Inspector Bordelli book, called Inspector Bordelli, will be published in June 2011. According to the promotional material: "Inspector Bordelli is Andrea Camilleri's favourite detective after his own Montalbano" and equally good news is that Camilleri's translator, Stephen Sartarelli is translating Inspector Bordelli.

No cover image yet, but here's the blurb:

Florence, summer 1963. Everyone has left town for the holidays, and the city is deserted, hot and full of mosquitoes. Inspector Bordelli is tossing and turning in bed when a telephone call informs him of a mysterious death: a wealthy Signora has been found dead in her villa. Next to the bed lies a glass with traces of her asthma medicine, but the coroner explains a sudden asthma attack is unlikely to have been the cause of death. Bordelli sets to work. Each suspect has a solid alibi, but there is something that doesn't quite add up . . .

Red Wolf - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Liza Marklund's Red Wolf tr. Neil Smith, which has just been published in the UK. The US edition will come out on 15 February 2011.

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

If you have read it, how well does the cover match the story?

Bonus question: Does a cover quote from a well-known author encourage you to pick up the book?

Here is the Euro Crime review by Maxine of Red Wolf.

OT: Foxy Speaks

To encourage our aged cat Nimes (19 1/4) (shown on the left in the video below) to keep eating, we cook him fresh chicken from time to time. His faculties are not what they were and he often can't smell food so this does the trick. Foxy has no such problems. The only food he dislikes is the supermeat ones as he can't wolf it down as quick, as it gets stuck on his fangs. Yesterday I cooked some chicken up and teased Foxy with it to get this video. He was a bit restrained (camera-shy?) but you get the idea. Do turn the volume up, and do watch Foxy's paws!

Translated Delights in 2011

Here are a few books I'm looking forward to in the New Year. I've updated my amazon list of Scandinavian Crime Fiction Published in 2011 and a fuller list of translated titles in 2011 can be found here.

Which titles are you most excited about?

January

In the depths of winter, a killer stalks the city streets. His victims are two young women, both found with twenty-four inexplicable puncture wounds, both drowned in their own blood. The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of options. There is only one man who can help them, and he doesn’t want to be found. Deeply traumatised by The Snowman investigation, which threatened the lives of those he holds most dear, Inspector Harry Hole has lost himself in the squalor of Hong Kong’s opium dens. But with his father seriously ill in hospital, Harry reluctantly agrees to return to Oslo. He has no intention of working on the case, but his instinct takes over when a third victim is found brutally murdered in a city park. The victims appear completely unconnected to one another, but it’s not long before Harry makes a discovery: the women all spent the night in an isolated mountain hostel. And someone is picking off the guests one by one. A heart-stopping thriller from the bestselling author of the The Snowman, The Leopard is an international phenomenon that will grip you until the final page.

February

The countryside around Milan is wrapped in eerie darkness as psychologist Anna Pavesi digs in the icy soil, looking for...what? Just over a week earlier, Anna had been approached with a request to investigate a fatal road accident and a missing body. Anna is no detective, but she was short of money and agreed to take on the assignment, leading her into a labyrinth of false clues and wilful deception in which nothing is at is seems. As she digs deeper, Anna realises that even her own life may be in danger...

March

Håkan von Enke, a retired naval officer, disappears during a walk in a forest near Stockholm. Wallander is not officially involved in the investigation, but he is personally affected - von Enke is his daughter's father-in-law - and Wallander is soon interfering in matters that are not his responsibility. He is confounded by the information he uncovers, which hints at elaborate Cold War espionage.

Wallander is also haunted by his own past and desperate to live up to the hope that a new granddaughter represents, and will soon come face-to-face with his most intractable adversary - himself.

Suspenseful, darkly atmospheric, psychologically gripping, The Troubled Man is certain to be celebrated by readers and critics alike.

April

Fred Vargas - An Uncertain Place
Commissaire Adamsberg leaves Paris for a three-day conference in London. With him are a young sergeant, Estalère, and Commandant Danglard, who is terrified at the idea of travelling beneath the Channel. It is the break they all need, until a macabre and brutal case comes to the attention of their colleague Radstock from New Scotland Yard. Just outside the baroque and romantic old Highgate cemetery a pile of shoes is found. Not so strange in itself, but the shoes contain severed feet. As Scotland Yard's investigation begins, Adamsberg and his colleagues return home and are confronted with a massacre in a suburban home. Adamsberg and Danglard are drawn in to a trail of vampires and vampire-hunters that leads them all the way to Serbia, a place where the old certainties no longer apply.

May

Johan Theorin - The Quarry

June

Jan Costin Wagner - Winter of the Lions
Every year since the tragic death of his wife Detective Kimmo Joentaa has prepared for the isolation of Christmas with a glass of milk and a bottle of vodka to arm him against the harsh Finnish winter. However, this year events take an unexpected turn when a young prostitute turns up on his doorstep. Not long afterwards one of Kimmo’s colleagues, a forensic pathologist, is found murdered and Finland’s most famous talk-show host is brutally attacked. When it becomes clear that the pathologist had recently been a guest on the star’s show, Kimmo is called upon to use all his powers of intuition and instinct to solve the case. Meanwhile the killer is lying in wait, ready to strike again… In Kimmo Joentaa, prize-winning author Jan Costin Wagner has created a lonely hero in the Philip Marlowe mould, who uses his unusual gifts for psychological insight to delve deep inside the minds of the criminals he pursues.

July

Karin Fossum - The Caller
One mild summer evening Lily and her husband are enjoying a meal while their baby daughter sleeps peacefully in her pram beneath a maple tree. But when Lily steps outside she is paralysed with terror. The child is bathed in blood. Inspector Sejer is called to the hospital to meet the family. Mercifully, the baby is unharmed, but her parents are deeply shaken. Sejer spends the evening trying to comprehend why anyone would carry out such a sinister prank. Then, just before midnight, his doorbell rings. The corridor is empty, but the caller has left a small grey envelope on the mat. From his living room window, the inspector watches a figure slip across the car park and disappear into the darkness. Inside the envelope Sejer finds a postcard bearing a short message. Hell begins now.

New Reviews: Bateman, Becker, Child, Dunne, Kolczynski, McCleary

One competition for October and it is open internationally closes 31st:
Win one of five copies of Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes

Here are this week's reviews:

Geoff Jones reviews the second in the "mystery man" series from (Colin) Bateman: The Day of the Jack Russell now available in paperback;

Amanda Gillies reviews the third in the globe-trotting Chris Bronson series by James Becker: The Messiah Secret;

Maxine Clarke reviews the eagerly awaited sequel to Lee Child's 61 Hours - Worth Dying For;

Paul Blackburn reviews the first in 'the Reaper' series by Steven Dunne: The Reaper set in Derby;

Laura Root reviews The Oxford Virus by debut author Adam Kolczynski

and Terry Halligan reviews Carol McCleary's The Illusion of Murder in which Nellie Bly aims to go round the world in 75 days.

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

OT: It's Cat-urday (symmetry)

This was taken a few days ago. As the nights are getting colder, we're seeing more of the ginger one...

Publishing Deal - Penny Hancock

From today's Booktrade:

Simon & Schuster have triumphed in a hotly contested auction for two novels by debut author Penny Hancock. Senior Commissioning Editor Francesca Main acquired UK and Commonweath rights, excluding Canada.

The first of the two novels, Tideline, has drawn comparisons with the writing of Belinda Bauer, Sophie Hannah, Minette Walters and Nicci French and is a psychological thriller rich in atmosphere and suspense. Set by the Thames in Greenwich, it is the story of a respectable married woman, Sonia, who one afternoon answers the door to fifteen-year-old Jez, the nephew of a family friend. She invites him in – and doesn't let him leave. Sonia's estranged husband, her twenty-one-year-old daughter and Jez's own family, falling apart under the stress of his disappearance, all remain oblivious to Sonia's secret, and as events run an increasingly sinister course, we realise she will stop at nothing to keep it...

Francesca Main said: "This is a masterfully controlled, beautifully written and utterly mesmerising novel with a darkly evocative setting. I loved the unwavering composure of Sonia's first-person voice, despite her increasingly unnerving actions, and the gradual reveal of the events in the past that have unhinged her. This is a story of obsessive desire and the destructive power of memory that gets right under the skin. I'm delighted that we'll be publishing Penny, who no doubt has a glittering future ahead of her."

Simon & Schuster will publish Tideline in trade paperback and bespoke limited edition hardback in Spring 2012.

Trailer - Someone Else's Son & Exclusive Extract

Here is the trailer for this month's competition prize, Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes:



In addition I have been sent an exclusive extract containing pages 124 to 129 which can be viewed here (hosted on the euro crime website).

The competition is open to all and can be entered here.

Blacklands - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Belinda Bauer's Blacklands which has just won the CWA Gold Dagger.

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

If you have read it, how well does the cover match the story?

Bonus question: Does it winning one of the UK's highest crime fiction awards make you more likely to read it?

Here is the Euro Crime review by Paul of Blacklands.

Review: Doctor Who: Demon Quest: The Relics of Time (audio book)

Doctor Who: Demon Quest Part One: The Relics of Time by Paul Magrs and narrated by Tom Baker (September 2010, BBC Audiobooks Ltd/AudioGO, ISBN: 1408466678)


Following the success of 2009's five-part Hornets' Nest series, Tom Baker, Susan Jameson and Richard Franklin have been lured back to the studio for the Demon Quest series, again broken into five, one hour, episodes.

At the beginning of The Relics of Time, we find the fourth Doctor resting up in his Sussex retreat, Nest Cottage, with his housekeeper Mrs Wibbsey. He has decided to overhaul the TARDIS and has bits strewn all over the place. Unfortunately Mrs Wibbsey mistakes the spatial geometer for some old porch lights and takes it to the jumble sale where it is bought by a stranger to the village. A stranger, who rather than leave cash, leaves a collection of unusual items including a picture of an ancient mosaic with a very familiar face on it (see above!).

Fortunately the TARDIS can still move in time, so the Doctor and Wibbsey are able to travel back to Ancient Britain to solve the mystery of how the Doctor's head has been so immortalised when he hasn't been there before (or "at least not recently").

And so begins the first time travelling of the series, one that leads to the creation in mythology of the priestess Wibbsentia, and the role of would-be assassin for the Doctor. The pair have to stop a war, find out who a wizard and his monster are, and not least of all begin to track down the missing pieces of the TARDIS.

Tom Baker is "my Doctor" so it's a great pleasure to have him back at the helm in these exclusive audio adventures. The story is told with part narration, part sparky scenes of dialogue, mostly between the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey. Tom Baker's voice may not be quite as it was in the tv shows, but he seems more mischievous and theatrical than ever.

By necessity, The Relics of Time is setting up the series mystery so the actual individual adventure is wrapped up quite quickly, though with much left to be explained in the following episodes. The schedule for which is:

Part Two: Demon of Paris (out now)
Part Three: Shard of Ice (4 Nov)
Part Four: Starfall (2 Dec)
Part Five: Sepulchre (2 Dec)

I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.

The Kray (Writing) Dynasty

I'm enjoying watching the current series of Whitechapel, which brings to the audience's attention the horrific crimes carried out by the Kray brothers. The Kray name is well known in fiction too with Roberta Kray (widow of Reggie) and Kate Kray (widow of Ronnie) both writing crime fiction. Kate Kray has recently switched from true-crime to fiction with The Betrayed, published by MaxCrime in May 2010. Roberta Kray's latest novel is The Villain's Daughter, published in June by Sphere:

Rosie was a beautiful, young actress when she fell in love with Johnny Mullins, the notorious London gangster. But their married life was far from what she had hoped it would be and was marred by drug abuse and violence. After Johnny was arrested and sentenced to 18 years, it became clear that their relationship was doomed to fail. Now, years later, and for the first time in a long time, life is finally looking up for Rosie Mullins. She has confronted her jealous husband and told him that she wants out, her acting career has taken off, and she has fallen into a new relationship with a top TV executive. All too quickly, however, she finds that Johnny's influence extends far beyond the prison walls that contain him. To make matters worse, his intensely loyal twin brother, "Mad Dog" Eddie, is proving to be every bit as dangerous as her husband. Betrayed by those who had sworn to protect her and cornered by her past, Rosie has to fight with every breath to protect herself and her beloved daughter, Ruby. She finds herself forced to play a very, very dangerous game; setting her old family against her new one.

Sean O'Donnell, small-time villain and family man, walked out of his home nineteen years ago and hasn't been heard of since. Now his daughter, Iris, has returned to the East End in the hope of finding him again. But she's not the only one on his trail. The psychotic Street brothers are right on her heels ? and they've got good reason to want her father dead. With the help of the mysterious Guy Wilder, Iris slowly begins to unearth the horrors of the past. It isn't long before she comes to realise that some secrets are best left buried...

New Reviews: Cotterill and Marklund

One competition for October and it is open internationally closes 31st:
Win one of five copies of Someone Else's Son by Sam Hayes

Here are this week's reviews. [Sorry for there only being two. I've had a cold/migraine induced sickness which meant the time I had allocated to do the reviews was spent in bed! I did want to get Maxine's review of Red Wolf up as a) it's great and b) the book came out just a couple of days ago]:

The latest (and is it the last?) in the Dr Siri series by Colin Cotterill has just come out in paperback - Love Songs from a Shallow Grave, reviewed by Michelle Peckham and

Maxine Clarke reviews the long awaited Red Wolf by Liza Marklund, tr. Neil Smith.

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

Sophie Hannah's crime series to be televised

News from the ITV press centre is that Sophie Hannah's The Point of Rescue (the third in the series featuring DC Simon Waterhouse and DS Charlie Zailer) is to be televised:

ITV today announced it has commissioned a new two-part drama, Point of Rescue (working title), based on the highly acclaimed and chilling psychological suspense novel from Sophie Hannah.

Point of Rescue will star Olivia Williams (The Ghost, Dollhouse, An Education, The Sixth Sense, Rushmore) in the lead role of DS Charlie Zailer and Darren Boyd (Whites, Personal Affairs, Little Dorrit, Green Wing) as DC Simon Waterhouse.

It's a story which explores themes of identity, guilt and family strife. The 2 x 60 min drama will be adapted for ITV by Hat Trick Productions.

When Geraldine Bretherick and her five-year-old daughter Lucy are found dead in the bathroom of their luxury home, the case divides new DS Charlie Zailer and her DC Simon Waterhouse. Is it murder, suicide or something even more sinister, and how watertight is the alibi of the husband Mark?

Meanwhile, when Sally Thorne, a working mother with a husband and two young children, hears of the deaths, she is shocked and appalled. Months before she'd met a man called Mark Bretherick at a hotel and had a brief but passionate affair with him. Now she feels the need to get in touch with him again to offer her sympathy. Her friend Esther does not think this is very wise.

Point of Rescue (working title) will film on location in Buckinghamshire in October.

The whole press release is here.

CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award 2010 - Shortlist

Nothing on the official CWA site yet but nominated author, Aly Monroe has posted the full short-list:

Revenger by Rory Clements
Washington Shadow by Aly Monroe
Heresy by S.J. Parris
Heartstone by C. J. Sansom
The Anatomy of Ghosts by Andrew Taylor
To Kill a Tsar by Andrew Williams

The winner will be announced on 4 November 2010.

The Poison Tree - Cover Opinions

This week's selection for "cover opinions" is the US and UK covers for Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree which came out in hardback in June in the UK. The US edition, is due out in January 2011.

So what are you thoughts on the US (LHS) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with Erin Kelly?
(For the UK edition the ends of the pages are also green!)

If you have read it, how well does the cover match the story?

Here is the Euro Crime review by Maxine of The Poison Tree.

Reminder: Book Video Awards Voting

There's still time to vote for the winner of the Book Video Award 2010. The theme this year is Crime:

The 2010 Book Video Awards celebrate four outstanding new Crime and Thriller books via striking video trailers produced by leading young film makers from the National Film & Television School.

Created as a result of a competition sponsored by Random House and The Bookseller magazine, YOU now get to decide the overall winner by viewing the trailers below & voting for your favourite. The winner will be announced at an Awards ceremony on October 15th.

and the four videos are for:

A - Blood's A Rover - James Ellroy
B - Blood Harvest - S J Bolton review
C - Hypothermia - Arnaldur Indridason review
D - The Snowman - Jo Nesbo review





Watch the trailers and cast your vote at the Foyles website.