Publishing Deal - Ragnar Jónasson

From today's Bookseller, Ragnar Jónasson has been signed up by new company Orenda Books:

Arcadia Books managing editor Karen Sullivan has left the company to set up her own publishing company, Orenda Books.

Launching next week with a small, “exciting” list of commercial literary fiction, the company has already signed three début novels, including David F Ross’ The Last Days of Disco, which Sullivan said will draw comparison with Roddy Doyle and Irvine Welsh.

Sullivan has also negotiated British Commonwealth rights with David Headley at DHH Literary Agency and Monica Gram at Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency A/S for Icelandic crime writer Ragnar Jónasson’s atmospheric, gritty début thriller Snowblind, and a second title, Dark Night (Bjartur Veröld). It will be author Jónasson’s first publication in English.

Crime Scene Britain and Ireland: A Reader's Guide

A review copy of John Martin's Crime Scene Britain and Ireland: A Reader's Guide arrived this morning. It's available to buy now and from a quick flick (at the East Anglia section naturally), is the sort of book I would love to have written, sigh, but at least the Euro Crime website gets a credit.

Here's the blurb:

This book is for all readers of crime fiction. Dividing Britain and Ireland into twelve regions, the author describes the work of contemporary and historic crime writers and their novels where the setting of the novel is crucial, giving the story context and local relevance. While regional crime novels go back to The Hound of the Baskervilles, identifiably regional crime within specific cityscapes and landscapes only came into its own twenty years ago with Ian Rankin, John Harvey and Val McDermid. Their work, together with hundreds of others, and thousands of titles are described in this volume which will be essential for the serious crime reader.

Another title, which might also be of interest is Scene of the Crime: A Guide to the Landscapes of British Detective Fiction (2002) by Julian Earwaker and Kathleen Becker, which is now out of print but second-hand copies are available (at least at amazon). The blurb:

Great writers of crime fiction not only create memorable detective heroes, they also firmly establish them in a setting. The home counties town of "King's Markham", for example, is the perfect "patch" for Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford and Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael is as inseparable from the cloisters of medieval Shrewsbury as John Harvey's D.I. Resnick is from the mean streets of modern Nottingham. Addicts of the British detective story should enjoy this gazetteer. With it in their hands they can navigate the streets and alleyways of Edinburgh where Sherlock Holmes sprang to life in Conan Doyle's imagination and where Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus now tracks down villainy (and a dram or two). They can explore the desolate coast of East Anglia, a favoured venue for P.D. James' Adam Dagliesh and the home of Margery Allingham, who also set many of the adventures of her enigmatic Albert Campion amid the Essex marshlands. In Oxford, they can tread in the footsteps of Inspector Morse or pay homage at the site where, in "Gaudy Night", Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey embraced - at long last - his Harriet Vane. The many black and white and colour photographs evoke the atmosphere and history of these and many other settings with which hundreds of thousands of readers will already be familiar in their imaginations. Based on interviews with leading writers and extensive research, and fuelled by the authors' enthusiasm for Britain's most popular literary form, this book should be an interesting read for all crime addicts.

Publishing Deal - Andrew Taylor

In The Bookseller yesterday, news of a publishing deal for Andrew Taylor with HarperCollins:

Crime and thriller publisher Julia Wisdom signed world English-language rights to The Ashes of London and two more 17th-century-set novels.

The Ashes of London is set in 1666 as the Great Fire of London rages, when a murder victim is found in the ashes of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Review: Only the Dead by Vidar Sundstol tr. Tiina Nunnally

Only the Dead by Vidar Sundstol translated by Tiina Nunnally, September 2014, 152 pages, University of Minnesota Press, ISBN: 0816689423

Reviewed by Laura Root.
(Read more of Laura's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

ONLY THE DEAD is the second in the acclaimed Minnesota trilogy by Norwegian author Vidar Sundstol, set around Lake Superior and takes place soon after the end of the first instalment, THE LAND OF DREAMS. In THE LAND OF DREAMS Forestry Services cop Lance Hansen found the body of a young Norwegian tourist at Baraga's Cross, and was involved in the investigation of the murder. As a local history enthusiast, Lance has also become obsessed with another possible murder that took place in the area over a hundred years previously, of a Native American trapper, Swamper Caribou, who disappeared in suspicious circumstances.

At the start of this novel, Lance is supposedly taking it easy on a weekend hunting trip with his brother Andy. But despite the tidy resolution of the murder case, Lance is riven by doubts. He is unable to voice his suspicions of Andy, who lied about his whereabouts on the night of the murder and becomes increasingly unable to act naturally around him. Lance's Ojibwe ex-father-in-law tries to reach out to Lance, sensing the stress that he is under, but Lance is unreceptive. An incident where Lance uses excessive violence when carrying out what he justifies as a mercy killing of a wild animal seriously injured by his car, shows that Lance may not the stolid principled man he seemed in the previous book.

When Lance goes out on a second hunting trip with Andy, the scene is set for fraternal relations to deteriorate further. Sundstol alternates the story of paranoid fear and suspicion between Lance and Andy with a similar tale over a hundred years early, of the relationship between Lance's ancestor, Norwegian immigrant Thorson Ormod, and the lethal distrust he develops towards Swamper Caribou, who rescues him after he falls through ice in Lake Superior and takes him to his cabin to dry off. (Though whether this version of events is to be accepted by the reader as definitive, or the product of Lance's imagination remains ambiguous).

ONLY THE DEAD has a very different feel to the previous instalment in the series. THE LAND OF DREAMS opened out, via the central character Lance Hansen, to show a whole community and way of life of a Scandinavian-American diaspora, and how they are viewed by big city incomers, such as the FBI agents involved in investigating the murder at Baraga's Cross. By contrast ONLY THE DEAD is a claustrophobic thriller focussing on the interaction between hunter and the environment, and between two sets of men, the Hansen brothers Lance and Andy, and the men of the past, Thorson and Swamper Caribou, where the hunter becomes the hunted and vice versa.

Although hunting-based thrillers tend not to be my choice of reading, I found ONLY THE DEAD was genuinely gripping. The author was very successful in building up tension in the relationships between the men, and showing how fear and poor communication can lead to fatal misunderstandings. Sundstol also very convincingly shows the perils faced by his characters in dealing with the hostile environment of the wintry lake and forest. Overall I felt this was an unexpected but surprisingly enjoyable follow up to the first book in the series, and I look forward to seeing how this trilogy is concluded. Although this book could work as a standalone, I would recommend reading THE LAND OF DREAMS before this book, to see the characters in their full context.

Laura Root, October 2014

Danish Crime at the Manchester Literature Festival

On Monday I went up to Manchester to both visit Sarah of Crime Pieces (and a Petrona Award judge) and to go with her to a Nordic Noir event hosted by the Manchester Literature Festival.

The event, Danish Crime, featured Peter Guttridge interviewing Elsebeth Egholm and Lene Kaaberbol.

Elsebeth Egholm is the author of the Dicte Svendsen series and the Peter Boutrup series (more about the relationship between these in a moment). Only one of the Dicte Svendsen series has been translated into English - the fourth, Next of Kin - and this was only published in Australia. Both of the Peter Boutrop series are or soon will be available in English in the UK.

Lene Kaaberbol, co-writing with Agnete Friis, is the author of four Nina Borg novels (only three are available in English at the moment). Nina Borg is a Red Cross nurse, living in Copenhagen.


The event opened with both authors reading from one of their books:

Elsebeth Egholm read a section from Three Dog Night, the first of the Peter Boutrop series, where Peter discovers a body.

Before reading she gave some of the background to the series: Peter is the son of her series heroine Dicte Svendsen. Dicte is a Jehovah's Witness and got pregnant aged sixteen. Her baby, Peter, ended up in an orphanage and had a terrible upbringing and ended up in jail.  Peter doesn't forgive his mum and only meets Dicte in book five of her series when he needs a new kidney.

The title Three Dog Night comes from an Australian saying which refers to a very cold night when you need three dogs to keep you warm!




Lene Kaaberbol then read the scene from The Boy in the Suitcase (the first in the Nina Borg series) where Nina discovers the boy, in the suitcase at Copenhagen station.


Then Peter began his interview.

EE's first book was published in 1999 and her first three books weren't really crime but did contain mysteries. She then embraced crime with the Dicte Svendsen series. Dicte is a journalist, as is EE, however EE is not a crime journalist so this involved lots of research.

LK has written children's and YA books but the scene she's just read out popped into her mind. An avid crime reader she got 'stage fright' over the idea of writing a crime novel so called an acquaintance Agnete Friis. They have a 'bible' and storyboard the series. They felt that there were lots of police characters, both male and female, as protagonists so they though who else would discover bodies - doctors and nurses - so they settled on a tough nurse. Nina is a terrible detective however, say LK, as she doesn't care who killed who!

EE originally thought the Dicte series would be a trilogy. There are currently six with two more planned. She commented on how you can't undo something like a pregnancy which was in the first book.

Peter asked about humour in Scandinavian crime fiction. EE feels that there is humour in her books. LK says that Danes are the Italians of the North (they live in the "beer belt" of Europe - below it's wine and above it's the hard stuff). She then gave an example of a Finnish joke:

How do you tell an extrovert Finn?
He's looking down at your shoes, not his own.

EE said she was inspired/influenced by Sara Paretsky and Liza Marklund, (comment from LK - "volvo envy" - as Swedes get everything first) and LK was also inspired/influenced by Sara Paretsky, Agatha Christie and Sjowall and Wahloo. Sjowall and Wahloo wanted people to move over to socialism and decided the best way to influence people was via a crime series. The political element increases through the [Martin Beck] series.

The Dicte Svendsen series has been made into a tv series with the first six books making up the first series. The second series is based on original stories. EE chose not to get involved with the scripts - based on her experience with Those Who Kill - it is very time consuming.

One of LK's children's books is being made into a film - she is not involved as she has an Oscar winner doing the script.

LK said that she didn't consider children's books as lesser to adult as though an adult can get a few days entertainment from your book, a child can be influenced for life by your book.

It is most rewarding when someone hasn't read a book before and says that I've read one of yours and then went on to read all of them.


Sarah asked the question about reading from an English translation of your own books: EE said it puts a slight distance but she loves the English language and thinks it sounds better in English :). LK said she had a close relationship with her translator for Boy, as it was herself!

Review: A Morbid Habit by Annie Hauxwell

A Morbid Habit by Annie Hauxwell, July 2014, 400 pages, William Heinemann, ISBN: 0434022969

Reviewed by Amanda Gillies.
(Read more of Amanda's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This series by Annie Hauxwell is fabulous. Her protagonist, private investigator Catherine Berlin, is a damaged soul who struggles with her heroin addiction at the same time as doing her best for the people who hire her, even when her own neck is on the block. Hauxwell writes extremely well and her tales are as addictive for her reader as the drugs are for her main character. I was delighted to be given another of her wonderful books to review.

This book, A MORBID HABIT, is set at Christmas time. Berlin actually has a job – as a security guard – and is watching monitors in the warehouse she is working in. Things start to go wrong when an undocumented delivery van arrives and appears to drop something off. Her boss tells her to forget what she saw and attempts to help her with this by means of a £50 note. But Berlin can't. She leaves her job, disgusted at the bribe, and tells a journalist friend what she has seen. This is just the beginning of her problems. Initially all seems well as she is given another contract, by a reputable company, really quickly and is set to go to Moscow to perform a due diligence investigation on a businessman. All nice and straightforward. Or is it? Her guide and interpreter is not everything that she appears to be and then a body is found at the airport, clutching a sign with Berlin’s name on it. All too soon Berlin is on the run from just about everybody and, with her passport and prescription drugs taken from her, has no way of returning home or controlling her withdrawal symptoms. The pressure builds as Berlin tries to get to the bottom of everything and the reader is left wondering whether this time she really has reached the end of the line.

If you like a good book that has a gutsy woman as the main character, as well as a nail-biter of a plot, then you are going to love A MORBID HABIT. There is no need to worry if you haven't read either of the previous two books in this series, as each one works well on its own. However the series is so good that you won't be able to leave it at just the one instalment!

Highly Recommended.

Amanda Gillies, October 2014.

Reviews: The Night Hunter & The Blood of Crows by Caro Ramsay

Two reviews today -  the fourth and fifth books in Caro Ramsay's Anderson and Costello series, starting with Michelle's review of the newest book, The Night Hunter, followed by Terry's review of the previous book, The Blood of Crows.

The Night Hunter by Caro Ramsay, July 2014, 256 pages, Severn House Publishers Ltd, ISBN: 0727884220

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Elvira's (Elvie's) sister Sophie has been missing for some time, but Elvie is keeping a secret. Just before Sophie disappeared, she told Elvie that she had to get away for a while, but not to tell anyone. But did she really go away of her own accord, or even with her supposed boyfriend Mark? Or is she one of the latest in a line of missing women, women who have disappeared while out jogging?

Sophie's disappearance has had its effects on the family. Elvie has suspended her medical studies, and is now working as a nanny/spy for a woman called Mary and her young son Charlie, who live way out in the countryside, outside of Glasgow. Mary is married to a rich husband (Alex) who is also a bit of a bully and needs someone to keep an eye on Mary. Elvie's stepfather has set up a 'Find Sophie Campaign', Elvie's mum is just about holding it together, though cooking and refusing to eat, and Elvie's brother Grant is becoming increasingly more fragile, with his behaviour becoming more and more unpredictable. Elvie is suffering from some undiagnosed syndrome with spreading acne and hair growth under her chin, that she refuses to tackle, as she focuses on what happened to Sophie.

And then, on her way home from dinner with her family, she encounters a car, a man in distress, and a near dead naked woman. But, this is not an ordinary hit and run. Somehow, the unknown woman had fallen off the cliff above, and onto the car. And what's more, Elvie recognizes her as one of the missing women; Lorna Lennox. She is just barely alive, and dies shortly afterwards. Where had she come from? Why was she naked? Who, or what was she running from?

Through a 'self-help' group Elvie makes an unlikely but productive alliance with an ex-cop, now private investigator called Billy Hopkirk, who turns out to have been an investigating officer for one of the missing women, Gillian Porter. Together they start a bit of sleuthing on their own, while liaising with the police. It works because Elvie is desperate to find her sister, and Billy wants to find out what happened to Gillian. They work on the possibility that there could be a link between these and other disappearances, and the discovery of Lorna is the catalyst, the start of the journey to finding out what did happen.

This book contains a bunch of interesting characters; Elvie is stubborn, difficult, ugly and determined and Billy certainly sounds like someone one wouldn't wish to sit next to on a bus, but he is canny and can help Elvie work out what to do next. The police contacts are supportive, as much as they can be, but in the end it's Elvie who drives the plot forward, and finds out what happened. I thought that the book was well plotted, with some great twists along the way. It contained some excellent and realistic descriptions of a family falling apart, while trying to stay together. Sophie and Elvie were great friends as well as sisters, and the long-lasting ramifications of Sophie's disappearance on Elvie are described well. I greatly enjoyed this book, as I have done with others by this author, and highly recommend it!

Michelle Peckham, September 2014

The Blood of Crows by Caro Ramsay, August 2012, 496 pages, Penguin, ISBN: 0141044365

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

This excellent police procedural recounts the story of Detective Inspector Colin Anderson during a very hot summer in June 2010 at Partick Central Police Station, Glasgow, Scotland. Anderson and his team are called to an incident, which truly shocked him, where a young immigrant girl had been chained to a ladder immersed in the River Clyde and the tide was rising and the police just did not have the capability to remove the chains in time before the water rose. In another incident a psychopathic gang boss had been killed following an arson attack and at first his wife was thought to be the culprit until her body was discovered murdered also. A paedophile conviction of a criminal named Skelpie Fairbairn is declared unsafe - putting Fairbairn back on Glasgow's streets and leaving Anderson under investigation.

A couple of other major incidents occurred as well which racked up the stress on Anderson to dangerous levels. His wife is urging him, whenever she has an opportunity to speak to him which is very limited as he is always working, to quit the job whilst he is still eligible and migrate to Australia with her and their children. He is not attracted to emigrating as he enjoys the demands of his job in Scotland too much but he feels he has to be interested to please his wife.

Anderson feels that he has been passed over for promotion to Detective Chief Inspector and is starting to resent it which is causing him even more stress. There is talk on the grapevine of the launch of a new Police initiative called "locust" a sort of serious crimes quad and he is of course interested and hopes he is chosen to go on to it in some capacity. To meet all these commitments Anderson is working all around the clock and discovers that a lot of the crimes he is trying to solve are connected and are masterminded by an elusive individual known as "The Puppeteer".

This is the fourth book DI Anderson book written by Caro Ramsay and my first introduction to the character and her brilliant writing. This was a really interesting book with marvellous cast of characters which I just could not put down. The only problem I had was that there was so many characters in the book that I was confused some times when picking the book up the following day, but a quick recap of a few pages and I was quickly back into the rhythm of the book and was gripped once more. I will certainly look out for her earlier books and look out for her name in the future. Very enjoyable and entertaining.

Terry Halligan, September 2014

Some 1932 Titles (for Past Offences)

The latest monthly challenge over at Past Offences is to read a book in October, published in 1932. Here are a few classic crime titles to choose from, first published in English in 1932, pulled from my database:

Edward Acheson - Murder by Suggestion (apa Red Herring)
Christopher Bush - Cut Throat
Agatha Christie - Peril at End House
Agatha Christie - The Thirteen Problems (apa The Tuesday Club Murders)
Clemence Dane - Re-Enter Sir John (with Helen Simpson)
Georgette Heyer - Footsteps in The Dark
Gladys Mitchell - The Saltmarsh Murders
Dorothy L Sayers - Have His Carcase
Georges Simenon - Death of a Harbour Master (apa Maigret and the Death of a Harbor Master)
Georges Simenon - Liberty Bar (apa Maigret on the Riviera)
Georges Simenon - The Flemish Shop (apa Maigret and the Flemish Shop)
Georges Simenon - The Madman of Bergerac
Georges Simenon - The Mystery of the 'Polarlys'
Georges Simenon - The Saint-Fiacre Affair (apa Maigret and the Countess/Maigret Goes Home/Maigret on Home Ground)
Georges Simenon - The Shadow in the Courtyard (apa Maigret Mystified)
Beryl Symons - The Opal Murder Case
Patricia Wentworth - Nothing Venture
Patricia Wentworth - Red Danger (apa Red Shadow)
T H White - Darkness at Pemberley

Review: Blood on the Water by Anne Perry

Blood on the Water by Anne Perry, September 2014, 416 pages, Headline, ISBN: 0755397215

Reviewed by Terry Halligan.
(Read more of Terry's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

It is London 1865 and Commander William Monk, head of the River Police is in a rowing boat on the Thames with his deputy Mr Orme, when suddenly they see a large pleasure boat "The Princess Mary", a hundred yards or so from them explode! Monk and Orme immediately start rowing back to the vicinity of the troubled vessel and try to take as many of the survivors from the water as they can, there seems to be bodies everywhere. Other boats and crafts in the river also render assistance. The resulting disaster claimed the lives of 179 passengers. Monk with his men, immediately started investigating what caused the terrible incident including him going down to to the wreck in a diving suit the next morning.

However, later that morning he was astonished to have the investigation taken from him by orders of the Home Office who said that the Commander of the London Metropolitan Police should head the investigation. Monk is completely astonished by this surprising turn of events and angry that his team of men who are very knowledgeable about the River Thames and its users should have had the investigation taken from them for probably political reasons.

The Suez Canal was being constructed during the period 1859 to 1869 and there was a lot of antipathy to this as it was felt that British interests would suffer and lots of jobs and money would be lost and there was a lot of hatred shown towards the Egyptians as a result. There was much pressure directed at the Metropolitan Police to find the guilty culprit who caused the explosion as soon as possible and the Metropolitan Police later arrested an Egyptian man, who was quickly tried and sentenced to hang for the crime. However, William Monk, Head of The River Police investigating a separate crime, discovers that the case against the Egyptian is flawed. He makes his misgivings known and he is surprised to be ordered to reinvestigate the crime again himself.

The story moves on at a very fast pace until the very surprising conclusion is reached almost on the last page.

This author published her first mystery book in 1979 with the Inspector Pitt story, THE CATER STREET HANGMAN, she has since then published a further twenty-nine books in that series together with additionally a further twenty books about William Monk, five in her World War 1 series and a further sixteen books in other series or stand-alones.

The author's research is truly first class and she cannot be faulted on anything. Although she has published so many books each one of them is very interesting and non formulaic, well plotted, with well-drawn characters. It is not necessary to read all the earlier books to appreciate this one as the author explains everything.

Although I have read a few of the earlier books in the William Monk series and was familiar with the character I have many more to read to catch up with all the back stories of the characters described. I have also read for review some of the titles in her Inspector Pitt series and enjoyed them also. Anne Perry is an extremely gifted author and is very deserving of the worldwide success she has had.

I enjoyed this book enormously and still cannot get the plot out of my mind. I look forward to reading more books in any of the series. Extremely well recommended.

Terry Halligan, October 2014.

TV News: Grantchester Start Date

The new series, Grantchester, based on the first book in James Runcie's Sidney Chambers series, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death begins on ITV, Monday 6 October at 9pm.

There is a huge billboard outside the train station I use:

From the Radio Times:

Happy Valley actor James Norton will star alongside Robson Green for the six-part series, which is set in 1950s Cambridgeshire.

Adapted from the novel, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death by James Runcie, the series is written for ITV by Daisy Coulam, who has previously scripted EastEnders and Casualty.

Set against the backdrop of the real hamlet of Grantchester, the drama focuses upon the life of Sidney Chambers (Norton), a charismatic, charming clergyman who turns investigative vicar when one of his parishioners dies in suspicious circumstances.

Soldier Soldier star Green plays plain-speaking, over-worked police inspector, Geordie Keating, whose methodical approach to policing complements Sidney’s more intuitive techniques of coaxing information from witnesses and suspects.

Executive Producer Diederick Santer says of the series: “Grantchester is a real labour of love for me and [production company] Lovely Day. Sidney is a charming, but complex character, a man of faith burdened by his past despite a distinguished wartime record, he’s funny, dashing and inquisitive. He loves being a parish priest in the exquisite village of Grantchester, but somehow it’s not enough and he still finds time to fall in and out of love and solve crimes.

New Reviews: Baylis, Brett, Charles, Connor, Corbin, Janes, Staincliffe, Weaver, Wilson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Lynn Harvey reviews The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis and she liked it very much;

Rich Westwood reviews Simon Brett's Blotto, Twinks and the Riddle of the Sphinx, which is now out in paperback;

Mark Bailey reviews Paul Charles's The Lonesome Heart is Angry, set in Northern Ireland;

Amanda Gillies reviews The Bosch Deception by Alex Connor;

Michelle Peckham reviews Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin;


Terry Halligan reviews Tapestry by J Robert Janes, the fourteenth in the St-Cyr and Kohler series set in Occupied Paris;

Laura Root calls Cath Staincliffe's Letters to My Daughter's Killer - "a little gem";

Susan White reviews Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, the fifth in his David Raker series and




Terry also reviews Robert Wilson's You Will Never Find Me, the second in his Charlie Boxer series.





Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Ludlow Crime Fiction?

I have spent a lovely day today at Ludlow, exploring the woods, town and of course tea-rooms. I have been to the castle before so didn't go inside this time but I will again one day.

I only know of one crime novel set in Ludlow but do let me know if there are more.

Phil Rickman's The Smile of a Ghost, the seventh in his Merrily Watkins series, is set in Ludlow:

The border town of Ludlow has it all: exquisite medieval streets, an imposing ruined castle, a parish church the size of a cathedral and a weight of history and legend. Wealthy people, famous people, have come to Ludlow to live. A sad teenage boy comes here to die ... dramatically, at sunset, in a fall from the ruins. Accident or suicide? Either way, no great mystery. Or is there? Robbie Walsh was the nephew of former Detective Sergeant Andy Mumford, newly - and reluctantly - retired from West Mercia CID. When Mumford's ailing mother becomes convinced she's still seeing her dead grandson in the old town, he brings in Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mum and Deliverance consultant to the Diocese of Hereford. Is it dementia, delusion or something even more disturbing? Both scepticism and the dark underside of belief threaten Phil Rickman's engagingly open-minded heroine in this brilliantly structured, atmospheric thriller.

Review: Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver

Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, August 2014, 592 pages, Penguin, ISBN: 1405913460

Reviewed by Susan White.
(Read more of Susan's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

People go missing every day. Sometimes they walk out of their lives and sometimes they are taken against their will. After the police have done everything they can - and if the person still cannot be found - what then? Retired Detective Superintendent's Leonard Frank's daughter has perhaps more knowledge and resources than most but when she is warned off her investigating her father's mysterious disappearance by her superiors, she has no choice but to call in a specialist people-finder.

David Raker is already known and disapproved of by most police officers he has met. He is an ex-journalist and therefore perhaps their suspicions of him are understandable but they also question some of his methods. Because, of course, he doesn't have to follow the same strict rules in his investigations as they do. So he is a bit suspicious when serving police officer Melanie Craw approaches him to help track down a missing person and very surprised when he learns that it is her father, Leonard Franks.

Leonard and Ellie Franks lived in an isolated cottage on the moors in Dartmoor. Leonard went out to the woodpile to collect wood for the fire one winter afternoon and never came back. His disappearance, without clothes, money or telephone has everyone stumped - how was he spirited away from the house from which the moor stretches in full view for miles? Is the disappearance connected to an old case he worked, is it payback for a conviction and if he went willingly, why?

As Raker investigates, he struggles with the reluctance of Frank's old colleagues to talk to him but gradually pieces fall into place and then he finds himself up against men who will do anything to keep their secrets, even threaten the very people closest to him.

This is a really pacy thriller, the action packed into only a few days. The characters are very well written and engaging and I found myself understanding some of the actions of even the bad guys in the story. This is the fifth novel to feature the character David Raker but is easily read as a standalone. David Raker is new to me and I find myself wanting to read the other novels featuring him - this is an exciting read - a real find.

Susan White, September 2014

Review: Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin

Now That You're Gone by Julie Corbin, June 2014, Hodder & Stoughton, ebook

Reviewed by Michelle Peckham.
(Read more of Michelle's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

Set in Scotland, Isla’s life is turned upside down when her twin brother Dougie is found drowned in the Clyde in Glasgow. Isla can’t accept that her brother, an ex-marine, could have died in such a banal way. He’d only had 4 pints to drink in a local pub and he should have been able to swim to safety after falling in the river. As he worked as a private investigator, she is sure that he must have put himself in danger possibly as a result of his investigation into the disappearance of a young girl called Lucy. She thinks that his death was more than simply an accident as the police have concluded and is determined to prove it.

While the novel focuses on Isla’s attempts to get to the bottom of what caused Dougie’s death, the real story is about her life, her relationship with Dougie, her sister Marie, her parents, and her own children and ex-husband, and how she starts to re-evaluate aspects of those relationships. It’s also about her coming to terms with the shock of Dougie’s death and its unexpectedness. It was such a stupid and avoidable death, and she has to discover that there was something more to it as a way of giving his death more meaning. Her investigations lead to her making discoveries about Dougie, uncovering some of his secrets and learning things about him and his life that she didn’t know or realize. A short, excellent read that manages to capture the sense of loss when someone close dies, and the sense of desperation to make sense of it all.

Michelle Peckham, September 2014

Jane Austen, Detective - Returns

I've posted about Jane Austen and crime before but here's what's Jane-related and coming out in the next few months:

From Stephanie Barron, after a three year gap, the eleventh in her Jane Austen as sleuth series, Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas, is published in the US next month:

Christmas Eve, 1814: Jane Austen has been invited to spend the holiday with family and friends at The Vyne, the gorgeous ancestral home of the wealthy and politically prominent Chute family. As the year fades and friends begin to gather beneath the mistletoe for the twelve days of Christmas festivities, Jane and her circle are in a celebratory mood: Mansfield Park is selling nicely; Napoleon has been banished to Elba; British forces have seized Washington, DC; and on Christmas Eve, John Quincy Adams signs the Treaty of Ghent, which will end a war nobody in England really wanted.

Jane, however, discovers holiday cheer is fleeting. One of the Yuletide dies in a tragic accident whose circumstances Jane immediately views with suspicion. If the accident was in fact murder, the killer is one of Jane's fellow snow-bound guests. With clues scattered amidst cleverly-crafted charades, dark secrets coming to light during parlor games, and old friendships returning to haunt the Christmas parties, whom can Jane trust to help her discover the truth and stop the killer from striking again?

And in July 2015, Mr and Mrs Darcy return in Carrie A Bebris's seventh book in the series, The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, the Disappearance of Lady Denham), no blurb available yet.

Review: The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis

The Tottenham Outrage by M H Baylis, July 2014, 288 pages, Old Street Publishing, ISBN: 1908699671

Reviewed by Lynn Harvey.
(Read more of Lynn's reviews for Euro Crime here.)

He spotted a group of little boys, done up not as super-heroes or figures of modern legend but in outsized pin-striped suits and ties. One had a big briefcase, another carried a toy mobile phone, a third waved a rolled-up umbrella about.
"They're being you," said a voice at his elbow. It was Mordecai Hershkovits.

Haringey, North London, a spring day.
41 year-old local “journo” Rex Tracey sits in a traffic jam at the wheel of his mate Terry's car and he is terrified. Beside him, Terry tells him to calm down. But Rex hasn't driven since the accident ten years ago and tomorrow he has to retake his test. Photographer Terry has agreed to give Rex some coaching as they drive to Finsbury Park to interview a local history writer. Rex botches his parking and crunches into the car behind. Unfortunately its driver turns out to be Dr George Kovacs, not only the aforesaid local author but also a disagreeable neighbour of Terry's. After some prickly words the trio enter the park which today is full of people celebrating spring, including a Hasidic family picnicking at a table despite being harangued by a young Muslim man. Terry's photography session with Kovacs is cut short by a woman's scream. Turning, they see the picnicking family slumped over their dishes as if asleep. But they are dead. And the screaming woman is accusing a group of young Muslim men of spraying something at the family. The youths scatter and run. Dr Kovacs, visibly shaken, also leaves in a hurry.
Rex and Terry, Geiger-countered, multiply swabbed and issued with contact cards in the event they feel ill, go back to News North London's offices to upload their copy and photos onto its website. The park is filled with chemical-suited techs; soldiers are sealing its centre behind opaque plastic. Helicopters overhead, the Muslim boys – said to have followed a radical teacher – are being hunted in a manner likely to turn other young men to their cause. The dead family were members of the Hasidic Dukovchiner sect, a group already in the news with the disappearance of another member, 14 year-old Micah Walther, the previous year. Rex and Terry decide to drop by Stamford Hill on the way home. There, they find the shomrim – a kind of community policing group – out in force. Rex spots one he knows, Mordecai Hershkovits, who tells him that the family's name was Bettelheim – that the Muslim boys need to be caught – and if Rex wants to know any more, he should try "vegetables". Which turns out to be the name of a nearby shop. Terry, feeling unwell, sets off home. But Rex stays to interview the shop's disparate husband and wife owners, also Dukovchiner, who tell him that the Bettelheims were a quiet family. A quiet family from a quiet sect. Yet a sect with a missing boy and an entire family dead. Rex has almost reached home when ex-News North London reporter, Ellie Mehta, turns up like a bad penny, eager to tell him that his friend Terry has been arrested for the murder of Dr Kovacs...

THE TOTTENHAM OUTRAGE is the second crime novel by writer M H Baylis (aka Matt Baylis, aka Matthew Baylis) featuring Haringey journalist Rex Tracey. It follows on from Tracey’s début in DEATH AT THE PALACE (“Alexandra”) and continues Baylis's love song to the melting pot which is modern-day Haringey. With his photographer friend Terry accused of murder, Rex continues to look into the deaths of the Bettelheims and Dr Kovacs. His investigations take him deeper into the lives of the Hasidic community of Stamford Hill, the roots of whose sects and Rebbe lie in the villages of 18th century Poland. This is a richness of traditions not often explored in crime fiction although it brings to mind aspects of Michael Chabon's alternative-future crime novel, THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION. Embedded into this modern tale of death in Finsbury Park are flashback narrations recounting the story of the shootings and failed anarchist robbery of 1909, the original "Tottenham Outrage". These narrated segments pop up in the text with no prompting – but, such is the assurance of Baylis's writing, the voice of its narrator, the mysterious and tough George Smith, is vivid and distinct from Rex's story and makes a great counterpoint to that of Rex.

I lapped up THE TOTTENHAM OUTRAGE: jam-packed both with characters and with character: funny, vivacious and enthralling. It's written with skill, observation, understanding and a relish for contemporary life in a teeming part of London that will, I hope, provide many more stories for Rex to tell. Read and enjoy.

Lynn Harvey, September 2014.

Awards News: CWA Dagger in the Library Longlist

Catching up with the latest CWA news, the Longlist for the Dagger in the Library has been announced. From the CWA's website:

The response was staggering. With 1,384 people voting for 636 different authors, the longlist highlights the extraordinary quality and variety in crime writing. Unlike most other literary prizes, the Dagger in the Library honours an author’s whole body of work to date, rather than a single title.

The longlist (in alphabetical order):

MC Beaton (Constable & Robinson)
Tony Black (Black and White Publishing)
Sharon Bolton (Transworld Publishers)
Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
Mari Hannah (Pan)
James Oswald (Michael Joseph)
Phil Rickman (Corvus)
Leigh Russell (No Exit Press)
Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer)
Neil White (Sphere)

(Links are to the bibliography pages on Euro Crime, including links to any reviews.)

Dorothy L Sayers - Audiobooks

I've recently received a press release from Hodder and Stoughton announcing new audiobook recording for all of Dorothy L Sayers books, starting with the release of Whose Body? tomorrow:

Hodder & Stoughton will publish the complete crime backlist of Dorothy L. Sayers as digital audiobooks. World rights excluding the USA were acquired from Georgia Glover of David Higham Associates.

Editor Dominic Gribben said: "Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the great authors of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and a cornerstone of Hodder’s crime fiction publishing. We’re recording new editions – brilliantly read by Jane McDowell – to offer listeners a fresh, consistent way to experience these stories.”

Hodder will publish 16 titles over the course of the next year beginning with the first Lord Peter Wimsey novel, Whose Body?, on September 18th 2014. Hodder will publish one title a month with the final title being published in December 2015.

Reviews: Arlidge, Daly, Duke, Furst, Kitson, Kreslehner, Mann, Phillips, Wilkinson

Here are nine reviews which have been added to the Euro Crime website today, three have appeared on the blog since last time, and six are completely new.

NB. You can keep up to date with Euro Crime by following the blog and/or liking the Euro Crime Facebook page.

New Reviews

Michelle Peckham reviews M J Arlidge's second book featuring Southampton's DI Helen Grace, Pop Goes the Weasel;

Terry Halligan reviews Bill Daly's Black Mail the first in the DCI Charlie Anderson series set in Glasgow;

Susan White reviews Simon Duke's debut Out of Bounds which is set in the US;

Lynn Harvey reviews Alan Furst's Midnight in Europe set in the late 1930s;

Terry also reviews Bill Kitson's Buried in the Past, the eighth in the DI Mike Nash series;

Michelle also reviews Austrian author Gabi Kreslehner's Rain Girl tr. Lee Chadeayne;

Rich Westwood reviews George Mann's Sherlock Holmes - The Spirit Box;

Amanda Gillies reviews Last Kiss by Louise Phillips, the third in the Dr Kate Pearson set in and around Dublin

and Mark Bailey reviews Kerry Wilkinson's Crossing the Line, the eighth in the DI Jesica Daniel series set in Manchester.


Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.

Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here along with releases by year.

Publishing Deal - Andrea Carter

Another publishing deal announced, this time it's Constable; they have signed up two books from Irish author Andrea Carter:

Constable has acquired world English language rights in WHITEWATER CHURCH by Andrea Carter in a two book deal.

WHITEWATER CHURCH is the first of a crime series set in a small town in the beautiful and remote Inishowen Peninsula in Ireland. When a skeleton wrapped in a blanket is found in the secret crypt of a deconsecrated church, local solicitor Ben (Benedicta) O'Keeffe finds herself drawn into the dark secrets of a rural community, as she negotiates between the official investigation and obstructive locals to uncover the truth of what happened.

Andrea Carter is a barrister living in Dublin. She lived and worked in the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal as a solicitor for a number of years. WHITEWATER CHURCH was one of the winners of the 2013 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair and received an Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary Award. Constable will publish in Autumn 2015.

Read the whole article at Book Trade.