Eurocrime
Snippets about British and other European crime fiction, tv and film.
Updated: 1 hour 55 min ago
Eurocrime
Jonathan Cape has paid a six-figure sum for the rights of two books in a trilogy by debut author, Claire Letemendia. Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape purchased UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada from McClelland & Stewart, in a six-figure, pre-emptive offer.The US publication date is 12 May 2009.
The first book is titled Best of Men and Jonathan Cape is planning to publish it in July 2009. The trilogy is set during the British Civil War in Europe and England, where a nobly born mercenary, spy and cardsharp uncovers a plot to kill Charles I.
2009 Authors Confirmed:From the newsletter (not yet on the website):
Megan Abbott
John Banville
Mark Billingham
Gyles Brandreth
Ken Bruen
Duncan Campbell
Lee Child
Ann Cleeves
Natasha Cooper
Neil Cross
Daniel Depp
Stella Duffy
Ruth Dudley Edwards
Jasper Fforde
Barry Forshaw
Christopher Fowler
Ariana Franklin
Frances Fyfield
Jason Goodwin
Allan Guthrie
John Harvey
Reginald Hill
Suzette A. Hill
Declan Hughes
Peter James
Paul Johnston
Simon Kernick
Mark Lawson
David Levien
Robert Lewis
Laura Lippman
Stuart MacBride
Shona Maclean
Val McDermid
Brian McGilloway
Mark Mills
Denise Mina
Dreda Say Mitchell
Barry Norman
Caro Peacock
Caro Ramsay
Manda Scott
Zoë Sharp
Yrsa Sigurdottir
Andrew Taylor
Cathi Unsworth
Dan Waddell
Martyn Waites
Martin Walker
Lee Weeks
Laura Wilson
Exclusive 2009 Festival Preview: Panel Highlights
The Festival will get off to a pacy start with the announcement of the recipient of the hotly contested Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. Afterwards you'll have the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the weekend's starry cast of criminally-inclined characters, as authors and crime fans mingle at the Festival Opening Party.
The plot thickens as we delve into the very roots of the crime genre with The Raven and The Rue Morgue, a panel celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of the mysterious man hailed as the father of the modern detective story, Edgar Allan Poe. Peter James, Laura Lippman, Andrew Taylor and Martin Walker will be helping chair Barry Forshaw tackle the man behind the myth.
Setting the mood, Music To Murder By will take a look at the use of music in crime fiction. Can it become a character in itself, or is it merely an easy way to convey an atmosphere? John Harvey, Dreda Say Mitchell, Cathi Unsworth and Martyn Waites are among the admirers of classical, jazz, reggae and punk rock discussing what their favourite sounds bring to their work.
Adding a touch of glamour to proceedings, Harrogate meets Hollywood in the panel Shoot The Book. Film critic Barry Norman addresses the different disciplines of writing for page and screen with the aid of tinsel town screenwriters-turned-novelists, David Levien (whose writing credits include Ocean's 13, Rounders, and Runaway Jury) and Daniel Depp (co-writer of The Brave with his brother Johnny), Spooks writer and author Neil Cross and author of acclaimed novels adapted for television, Frances Fyfield.
Providing a twist in the tale, Dangerous Dykes will ask why do lesbians make such successful crime writers? Four of the best gay women novelists, Val McDermid, Natasha Cooper, Stella Duffy and Manda Scott, discuss the pros, the cons and the controversial aspects of their work.
Shocking denouements come courtesy of a new late night cabaret event, Secrets and Lies in which host Mark Billingham encourages some of your favourite crime writers to confess their innermost secrets - but are they telling the truth or just creating yet more works of fiction? You have to decide.
Yrsa's second Thora Gudmundsdottir book, My Soul To Take will be released in April 09.
Synopsis from amazon.co.uk:
The child started crying harder, trying desperately to stifle her sobs. This wasn’t right. Why couldn’t God just come and get her now, if He was so good? Why did she have to go down into that dark pit? She was afraid of the dark, and this was a bad place – her mother had told her so. The girl looked at the man and knew she was going down there whether she wanted to or not.Read the euro crime review of the first in the series, Last Rituals, here.
A grisly murder is committed at a health resort situated in a recently renovated farmhouse, which turns out to be notorious for being haunted. Attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir is called upon by the owner of the resort - the prime suspect in the case - to represent him. Her investigations uncover some very disturbing occurrences at the farm decades earlier – things that have never before seen the light of day…
MY SOUL TO TAKE is a chilling, dark and witty crime novel, and a welcome return for Thora, the heroine of the highly-acclaimed LAST RITUALS.
New Reviews:Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
In Mike Ripley's latest Crime File he reviews The Maze of Cadiz by Aly Monroe, Portobello by Ruth Rendell and The Murder Stone by Louise Penny;
I review the latest in the Crime Express novella series: The Okinawa Dragon by Nicola Monaghan and The Quarry by Clare Littleford;
Michelle Peckham reviews The Sins of the Children by James Brownley a series which features "Alison Glasby, first female crime correspondent for the Sunday Herald in London"
and Maxine Clarke recommends Norwegian author Anne Holt's The Final Murder (US: What Never Happens).
Next Saturday on BBC4 at 9pm, John Harvey presents a programme called Who is Kurt Wallander?:
(The programme is to be repeated several times over the weekend.)John Harvey presents a documentary about writer Henning Mankell, Sweden's most popular author internationally and the creator of the Kurt Wallander detective series.
By examining Mankell's anti-hero Wallander, it reveals the hidden angst affecting present-day Sweden, a country with an excellent welfare system yet one which has suffered two shocking recent political assassinations. The film tries to grasp what Mankell's characters say about Sweden and how his books inform the rest of the world about Scandinavia's largest country.
Which is to be followed by the first part of Before the Frost starring Krister Henriksson as Wallander and the late Johanna Sallstrom as his daughter Linda:
New policewoman Linda Wallander is waiting for her first big case at Ystad police station and her father, Inspector Kurt Wallander, is getting on her nerves. When her childhood friend Anna mysteriously disappears she is thrown in at the deep end and soon needs her father's help on a fascinating and very dangerous investigation.(Details of repeats and part 2 are not yet shown on the on-line schedule.)
Gyles Brandreth's next three untitled Oscar Wilde Mysteries, featuring Oscar Wilde as the sleuth aided by his real-life friend Arthur Conan Doyle, to Trish Lande Grader at Touchstone Fireside, for publication in 2010, by Ed Victor (NA).The third 'Oscar Wilde' mystery by Gyles Brandreth will be published in May 2009. The UK title is Oscar Wilde and the Dead Man's Smile. See my earlier post about the changes in titles for the first two books.
Sam Eastland's THE EYE OF THE RED TSAR, for a series featuring a Finnish agent, once Chief Inspector, confident and 'eye' of Tsar Nicholas II; set in 1929 and the agent is released from Gulag under mysterious circumstances to complete a special assignment for the new red Tsar, Stalin, to Kate Miciak at Bantam Dell, by Jason Cooper at Faber and Faber (US).
The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency will return to screens next year as a six-part series, the BBC has announced.Read the whole article, here.
A feature-length TV pilot, directed by the late Anthony Minghella, aired in March to impressive ratings and positive reviews from critics.
Based on Alexander McCall-Smith's bestselling novels, the 60-minute episodes will follow the adventures of Botswana's only female detective Mma Ramotswe.
Jill Scott, Anika Noni Rose, Desmond Dube and Lucian Msamati will reprise their roles from the TV pilot. Survivors star Paterson Joseph is a new addition to the cast as Cephas Buthelezi, a rival detective to Mma Ramotswe.
Earlier on in the year it was reported that 13 hour-long episodes had been requested by HBO with the BBC having the UK distribution.
Torchwood: Border Princes by Dan Abnett (April, 2007) BBC Audiobooks
I was very impressed with Dan Abnett's Everyone Says Hello and Border Princes is of an equally high standard.The book opens with the team expanded on the tv series by the inclusion of a new character, James Mayer, and goes straight into an 'end of the world scenario' with an alien artefact, the Amok, possessing whoever comes into contact with it before killing them. Even when the Amok is finally contained at the Hub, it soon exerts its influence over the team to get itself released. As well as the Amok, the team have to track down a salesman using alien technology to hypnotise home owners into buying double glazing as well as restraining a killer robot from another planet.
Meanwhile, another part of the story deals with the mysterious Mr Dine and his objective of protecting 'the Principal' which overrides all else, and on the personal side, Gwen rows with boyfriend Rhys and seeks solace with James.
Border Princes is action packed, the pace rarely letting up and includes several investigations that would take an episode each on the tv. Gwen, James and Jack carry most of the action with Tosh and Owen playing smaller roles and Ianto barely getting a line. Eve Myles narrates well though she doesn't mimic the other Torchwood actors' voices particularly closely so Jack sounds as Welsh as Gwen at times, rather than his normal American. But in the main you can tell who is speaking and she does have a lovely voice which can send a shiver down your spine.
I'm very glad I bought this - it was worth every penny.
The next Torchwood audio book release appears to be Torchwood: In The Shadows by Joseph Lidster, released in March 2009. Lidster was responsible for the abridgement of Border Princes and also wrote Lost Souls (review coming soon).
First up, is The Shadow in the Courtyard on Saturday, 29 November at 22.05:
Legendary French sleuth Maigret is called to the Place des Vosges, where the owner of a serum company has been found shot to death while seated at his desk. Behind him the unlocked safe lies empty and Maigret soon becomes convinced that the answer to the robbery and murder lies among the residents of the block of apartments.And will be followed by Maigret at the Doctor on Monday, 1st December at 22.00:
Maigret travels to Neuilly to investigate the mysterious death of a servant girl who had been working at the home of a local doctor. The case takes a dramatic turn when the autopsy reveals a horrific cause of death and that the girl had been four months pregnant.
Each episode is 90 minutes long.
Georges Simenon wrote 75 full length books about Maigret plus some short stories. The twelth in the series is called The Shadow in the Courtyard but there isn't one called Maigret at the Doctor. If anyone know which book Maigret at the Doctor is based on, please do leave it in the comments.
From amazon.co.uk:The city of Breslau, which was the atmospheric heart of the first of Marek Krajewski's novels in English, "Death in Breslau", is as a Georg Grosz backcloth to the second of Criminal Counsellor Eberhard Mock's investigations into a series of seemingly unrelated murders in the late 1920s. While Mock searches for the key to the mystery which afflicts his department in records of crimes committed in the past, his young wife, neglected by his obsessive work, falls among perverse and shocking companions and into contact with a sect that preaches the imminent end of the world. Krajewski's novels are as original as they are disturbing.Death in Breslau which is set later than End of the World in Breslau is reviewed here and here on Euro Crime.
End of the World in Breslau is due to be published in March 2009.
Craig Russell, author of the Jan Fabel detective series for Hutchinson, has joined Quercus for a concurrent series set in Glasgow in the 1950s. The series will star Lennox, a private detective whose clients are not always on the right side of the law.
Jane Wood and Ron Beard bought UK and Canadian rights in three novels, starting with Lennox in 2009, through Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann. Wood said: "At Quercus we’re all fans of the Fabel novels and we couldn’t be happier that Craig Russell has joined us. The Lennox books are very different in tone and confirm Craig’s amazing range and skill as a crime writer."
New Reviews:Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
Laura Root reviews the third in John Burdett's Bangkok series - Bangkok Haunts calling it "a skilful sophisticated thriller";
Michelle Peckham reviews the new offering from Michael Dobbs - The Edge of Madness;
Geoff Jones enjoys Clean Cut by Lynda La Plante
and Maxine Clarke is enthusiastic about Last Rituals by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir.
Maxine has also set up a crime and mystery room over on the friendfeed site which I love. As well as automatically updating with links to the latest blog posts from the members of the room, you can add a link to a newspaper article or review or another blog and on top of that you can comment on these things - in the friendfeed room as well as/or instead of in the blog comments. I'm probably not explaining this very well so do take a look and join us. Your favourite blogs are already there :-).
The Bibliograpies pages now have an author's country of birth, where known eg Donna Leon, and the lists of authors, by country of birth, now include America and Australia.
I have also reorganised and retitled some of the side-bar links in the hope of making it more obvious what's behind each link.
Read a brief 'My Body & Soul' interview with the former star of Spooks in the Observer. Mr P-J is the male face of Austin Reed from whence the above photo came.
ITV's Whitechapel which also stars Phil Davis and Steve Pemberton as well as Penry-Jones is rumoured to be shown in January.
Stephanie Bierworth has made her first acquisition since leaving Macmillan for Michael Joseph, buying Tim Weaver's debut CHASING THE DEAD as part of a two-book deal via agent Camilla Bolton of Darley Anderson Associates. "A terrifying psychological thriller" in the vein of Michael Marshall and Mo Hayder, it introduces readers to David Raker, ex-journalist and troubled missing persons investigator who is embroiled in a sinister chase when an old friend becomes convinced she's seen her dead son alive. Bierworth believes Weaver's is "one of those rare, spine-tingling thrillers that draws you in from page one, simply doesn't let you go and creates an atmosphere which stays with you for a very long time."
Bookchase® is exactly what it says - a chase with books.Today, I was pleased to see it for sale in my local Waterstone's bookshop along with...Harry Potter Cluedo (aka Clue (US)):Bookchase® is also the world's first board game about books which comes with your own bookshelf, library card, bookshop, and your own set of tiny books to collect. First one to collect six books and head home wins! Simple really.
Bookchase® is a family game which can also be played by adults and is designed for anyone from 5 years upwards. Never read a book? - you could still win. Read all the books in the world? You could still lose. Dare you take the Bookchase® challenge?
Dark magic has been performed at Hogwarts. A fellow student has vanished from the famous School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—and it is up to you to solve the mysterious disappearance. Play as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna or Neville and try to discover who did it, what spell or item they used, and where the student was attacked. Was it Draco Malfoy with a Sleeping Draught in the Owlery? Move around Hogwarts making suggestions— but watch out. Wheels on the board actually move to reveal secret passages, hidden staircases, and even the Dark Mark. Think you’ve gathered all the facts you need? Go to Dumbledore’s office to make your final accusation to win the game. Players 3-5, Ages 9+
Online prices start at £19.99 for the Harry Potter edition of Cluedo but several outlets appear out of stock. There was just one copy left in Redditch Waterstone's.
The BBC has commissioned four new George Gently dramas to air next year.
Based on Alan Hunter's Inspector Gently book series, the new films will focus on veteran Scotland Yard detective George Gently (Martin Shaw) and his partner John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby) as they solve crimes in '60s Northumberland.
Peter Flannery and Mick Ford will co-write the four instalments.
"The joy of writing the Gently stories lies in the period and the place," said Flannery. "The place because it's where I grew up; the period for the same reason, plus it gives me a chance to write about a country on the cusp of change.
"Each issue I look at at the heart of a crime - abortion, sexuality, youth gangs, child abuse, race, terrorism - was seen differently in the early '60s compared to today. As L. P. Hartley said, 'The past is another country. They do things differently there'."
First Novel AwardWhat the Costa judges said about Child 44:
Poppy Adams - The Behaviour of Moths
Sadie Jones - The Outcast
Jennie Rooney - Inside the Whale
Tom Rob Smith - Child 44
"This gripping, unputdownable thriller is an exciting new addition to the genre."
Karen Chisholm concluded her Eurocrime review:
"there's been considerable research into the background of CHILD 44, but the book doesn't read as a research tome - it reads as a story of fear, manipulation, power struggles, petty jealousy, brutality, cruelty, madness, loss, survival and humanity."
Read the whole review, here.
All the categories and nominees for the Costa Book Awards 2008 can be found on the website.
You can also watch the a video of the prize winners of a trip behind the scenes of the Torchwood/Doctor Who film set.Maureen joins a select band of authors who set their books in the 'perceived to be' unfashionable/unsaleable-market setting of Birmingham. As far as I know the only crime authors to set a series in Birmingham are:
Valerie Kershaw who wrote a five book series featuring a radio presenter (published between 1993 and 2000)
Judith Cutler who wrote two series set in Birmingham, published between 1998 and 2003, one with an amateur sleuth and another with a policewoman. (She is probably the best well known of the local crime writers, based on my library experience).
Plimmer and Long - an ex-cop and ex-con who co-wrote two books between 2000 and 2001.
John Dalton who had two Birmingham set books published in 2002 and 2004.
and
Chris Collett who began a series in 2004 featuring policeman Tom Mariner which stands at four books so far, with a fifth due next year. (Tom Mariner has many female fans in my reading group!)
If anyone knows of any more series set in Birmingham (looking at you Martin E :-)) then do please pop them in the comments.
A couple of snippets:
To KB:
What did you enjoy about the role?
"The world that Wallander lives in is a raw world where people have to deal with terrible news and with the death of loved ones in terrible circumstances. Wallander is very self-aware and perceptive and intelligent about human behaviour.
"For me, this is more of a straight part as Wallander's character does not have all the same eccentricities that would normally appear in these types of stories."
Read the whole article, here.
To HM:
What do you think of the British Wallander?
"I saw the tape of the show and I liked it enormously. I liked it because they had showed Wallander's warmth and also that the director and producers had gone in their own direction to create something that was completely new."
What crime drama do you enjoy?
"I really dislike characters like Poirot and Miss Marple as they never change – they are the same from the beginning to the end of the story. You and I are different each day because of what happens to us and that is how I write about Wallander and my characters.
"My readers are always looking forward to seeing what direction Wallander will go in next."
Synopsis of Sidetracked:In this first film, Sidetracked, a girl is seen wandering alone in a rapeseed field. Inspector Wallander is called to investigate. Before his eyes, the girl douses herself in petrol and burns to death – the event is both shocking and baffling for Wallander. A hunt for the girl’s identity begins.
On the home front, Wallander, recently estranged from his wife, has moved into his own place. Linda, his grown-up daughter, is keeping an eye on her dad as he adjusts to bachelor life. Wallander’s relationship with his own father, Povel, is difficult and, as it becomes clear that Povel’s health is in decline, Wallander strives for a reconciliation with him.
Meanwhile, Wallander’s workload soars as three apparently motiveless murders are committed. The victims are all male: a former minister of justice, a small-time criminal and a rich playboy. All are viciously killed, their scalps inexplicably taken. Wallander and his team investigate, determined to discover who the killer is and how these murders are connected.
New Reviews:Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
Paul Blackburn reviews the second in the Accident Man series by Tom Cain - The Survivor (sounds like one for Bond/Bourne fans);
Amanda Brown goes back to the 14th Century in Cassandra Clark's Hangman Blind the first in a new historical crime series;
Maxine Clarke catches up with Swedish lawyer Rebecka Martinsson in Asa Larsson's third book, The Black Path
and Norman Price is very disappointed with Aly Monroe's The Maze of Cadiz.
Synopsis from amazon:First we learnt about their backgrounds from their personnel files, then we learnt how Harry Pearce really feels about the world we live in from his secret diary. Now, learn further secrets about the crack MI5 team, otherwise known as the Spooks, in this brand new and exciting title from Headline.
Nathaniel Parker of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries is one of twelve celebrities posing with a beloved pet for the 2009 PDSA Pet Pawtraits calendar. The cost of the calendar is £4.99 and can be bought via the PDSA website and PDSA shops.You can preview the rest of the photos on the Daily Mirror website.
(Photo: Scarlet Page)
To Charlotte Clerk and Jon Riley at Quercus, world rights in Nick Stafford's first novel ARMISTICE. The novel is about a young soldier's death in the First World War, and about his fiancee's efforts to find out whether he was killed by friendly fire. For publication on Armistice Day 2009; the agent is Clare Conville at Conville & Walsh.and
To Susan Watt of HarperCollins, a Bernard Cornwell-style trilogy set in the Crimean War. TO DO AND DIE, the first of the trilogy, will be published in 2010 and opens with a regiment embarking for and fighting in the savage battles of what's regarded as the first modern war. Watt believes that "Patrick Mercer's writing takes the reader straight into the heart of battle, with all the courage and the cowardice, and also gives a compelling picture of the soldier's life, the cold, the comradeship, the food and the feuds and the fear of crippling injury or death". Mercer spent 20 years in the Army and commanded a battalion in Bosnia before becoming Today's Defence Correspondent. The MP for Newark and Retford is represented by Natasha Fairweather of A P Watt
Synopsis: Ulaan Bataar bakes in the heat of an unseasonably hot summer as it prepares to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the birth of the Mongol Empire. But the city is facing a series of unexpected crises - an apparent suicide bomber shot down by police in Suuk Bataar Square, a dead body in the City Museum re-enacting an incident from ancient Mongolian history, an explosion at a political rally, and yet another body found murdered nearby. For Doripalam, now boss of the Serious Crime Team, the crises are growing increasingly personal. As he struggles to keep control of his own personal and professional life, one of his own team is arrested.Solongo, Doripalam's wife is facing her own challenges and finds herself entangled with murder and with the fugitive officer. Worst of all, Nergui, now an influential figure in the Ministry of Security, appears to be pursuing an agenda all of his own. The roots of all this trouble lie in the past - in the history of the Mongol nation, as well as in the more recent legacies of the communist state. As the sun beats down, a chilling figure emerges - a figure from Nergui's past, an outcast, who has returned to exact revenge, both on Nergui himself and on the nation that rejected him.An except of The Outcast can be read on Michael Walters' website.
A look at the world of cryptic crosswords, offering up the secrets of these seemingly impenetrable puzzles.
Crossword setter Don Manley, AKA Quixote, reveals the tricks that compilers use to bamboozle and entertain solvers using a crossword he created especially for the programme.
We also find out why Britain became home to the cryptic crossword, how a crossword nearly put paid to the D-Day invasion and why London Underground is elevating the crossword to an art form.
Author Colin Dexter explains why Inspector Morse loved his crossword, Martin Bell reveals how his father became the first crossword setter of the Times without ever having solved one and the crossword editor of the Daily Telegraph opens up her postbag.
Also sharing their enthusiasm for cryptic crosswords are actors Prunella Scales and Simon Russell Beale, Val Gilbert of the Daily Telegraph and Jonathan Crowther, AKA Azed of the Times.
We have teamed up with Waterstone's for publication of Stephen King's new collection of stories JUST AFTER SUNSET. It's published on Thursday 13th November ... but Waterstone's Trafalgar Square will have copies on sale exclusively from 4.15pm on Wednesday 12th November.
This is the only store in the UK that will have copies before publication!
Also, the first ten people to buy JUST AFTER SUNSET will bag themselves a free DVD of the animated short story 'N' from the book.
I couldn't get my other half to pose (you can see the handprints in the floor):
A view of Cannes Bay from the old town:
EUROPEAN FILM 2008The winners will be presented during the Awards Ceremony on 6 December in Copenhagen.
IL DIVO, Italy
written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino
ENTRE LES MURS (The Class), France
directed by Laurent Cantet
written by Laurent Cantet, François Begaudeau & Robin Campillo after the novel of François Begaudeau
GOMORRA (Gomorrah), Italy
directed by Matteo Garrone
written by Maurizio Bracci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, UK
written and directed by Mike Leigh
EL ORFANATO (The Orphanage), Spain
directed by Juan Antonio Bayona
written by Sergio G. Sánchez
WALTZ WITH BASHIR, Israel/France/Germany
written and directed by Ari Folman
EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2008
Laurent Cantet for ENTRE LES MURS (The Class)
Andreas Dresen for WOLKE 9 (Cloud 9)
Ari Folman for WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Matteo Garrone for GOMORRA (Gomorrah)
Steve McQueen for HUNGER
Paolo Sorrentino for IL DIVO
EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2008
Hiam Abbass in LEMON TREE
Arta Dobroshi in LE SILENCE DE LORNA (Lorna’s Silence)
Sally Hawkins in HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
Belen Rueda in EL ORFANATO (The Orphanage)
Kristin Scott Thomas in IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T’AIME (I’ve Loved You So Long)
Ursula Werner in WOLKE 9 (Cloud 9)
EUROPEAN ACTOR 2008
Michael Fassbender in HUNGER
Thure Lindhardt & Mads Mikkelsen in FLAMMEN & CITRONEN (Flame & Citron)
James McAvoy in ATONEMENT
Toni Servillo in GOMORRA (Gomorrah) and IL DIVO
Jürgen Vogel in DIE WELLE (The Wave)
Elmar Wepper in KIRSCHBLÜTEN - HANAMI (Cherry Blossoms)
EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2008
Suha Arraf & Eran Riklis for LEMON TREE
Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano for GOMORRA (Gomorrah)
Ari Folman for WALTZ WITH BASHIR
Paolo Sorrentino for IL DIVO
Jack deals in cardboard, selling expensive and rare gaming cards to rich collectors. He makes plenty of money, travelling the world. He meets millionaire Henri, the man who has everything. Well, almost everything. Henri wants the elusive Okinawa Dragon, a one-off card given to a Japanese businessman who refuses to sell. A plan is hatched, and Jack is soon on his way to Osaka to complete Henri’s collection. There is only one way to get hold of something somebody doesn’t want to give.
A frightened phone call from her young daughter sends Jenny Carter into the darkness of Quarry Woods, seventeen years after she swore she’d never return. What she finds there triggers a journey back to a horrific event in her own childhood – an event which now threatens the present.Bookwitch also reviews Claws by Stephen Booth and the Crime Express concept, here.
In The Dark by Mark Billingham
Typhoon by Charles Cumming (book review)
Until Its Over by Nicci French (book review)
The Bellini Card by Jason Goodwin (book review)
The Roar of the Butterflies by Reginald Hill
Digne-les-Bains Station and our train
Var Valley (taken from the train)
I wish I'd brought more books though...
To Ravi Mirchandani at Atlantic, WEL rights in THE NOSTRADAMUS PROPHECIES, a debut thriller by Mario Reading. Mirchandani believes it is "wonderfully readable, a page-turning commercial thriller which takes one not only into the world of Nostradamus but also - fascinatingly - into a gypsy world I knew nothing of. The book is a real departure for Atlantic." The agent is Oliver Munson of Blake Friedmann, and translation rights have been sold in 12 countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Brazil and Japan; more deals will be finalised in the wake of Frankfurt.
Penguin is teaming up with TV channel Crime & Investigation Network to launch an online crime game, Monkeys, Skulls and Crosses. The game is scripted by Michael Morley, author of the Penguin thriller Spider.
The game puts users into the role of detective, interviewing suspects, inspecting the crime scene and hunting for clues in order to solve a murder case. It will be advertised on the CI channel.
CI Marketing Director James Pestell said: "It has been great to work with a fantastic publishing brand and prolific author who are committed to using digital to get closer to their readers."
Manufacturer's description:Nominated as one of the top handheld games of the year by the 2007 Japanese Game Awards, Professor Layton and the Curious Village sets players loose in a Victorian dream world as you and your guide, Professor Layton, explore a quirky Victorian village where everything is a puzzle.
Something is Odd in St. Mystere
In the curious village of St. Mystere, townsfolk speak to each other in riddles, lock their doors with sliding puzzles and hide their secrets within brainteasers. When the wealthy Baron Augustus Reinhold passes away, his will reveals a hidden treasure in the village of St. Mystere. Unable to locate the treasure themselves, the baron's family calls upon renowned puzzle expert Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, for help. Upon the pair's arrival, their search for the treasure is interrupted by the suspicious death of another member of the Reinhold family. Now with two mysteries on their hands, Professor Layton and Luke must work their way through the village's many puzzles, riddles and brainteasers to find the truth.
How to progress through the game
The storyline and puzzles are tightly integrated, so that as you explore the world and progress through the adventure, you will encounter more and more puzzles.
* As Professor Layton, players tackle more than 130 puzzles as they unravel the mysteries of the village. Challenges range from mazes and riddles to logic and sliding puzzles, many of which are new for the North American release. Touch-screen controls make working through puzzles a snap for players of all skill levels, and as a special bonus new puzzles are available weekly for download for the first six months following game release via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
* Unlike other puzzle-driven titles, Professor Layton is the first to offer a story, cast of characters and style that are just as strong as the game play. Fully voiced animated scenes bring the story to life, while the funny and eccentric villagers and the classic, hand-drawn art provide a stylish charm that will appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike.
New Reviews:
Guest reviewer Sharon Wheeler reviews Maloney's Law by Anne Brooke;
Maxine Clarke and Terry Halligan review Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis, here and here respectively. Bad Traffic is one of fifty titles selected for the Spread the Word campaign;
Norman Price reviews Dead Line by Stella Rimington the fourth novel starring MI5 agent Liz Carlyle
and Laura Root reviews the latest Angel book from Mike Ripley - Angels Unaware.
There won't be any new reviews added next weekend as I shall be away in France. (I've almost chosen which books to take...) Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found here.
So many books, so little time.The fifty titles include both fiction and non-fiction. The crime fiction selections include The Bloomsday Dead by Adrian McKinty and Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis.
Thousands of books are published every year, and only a small percentage makes the mark that it should.The World Book Day team asked publishers large and small to submit books they thought deserved to reach a wider readership – most specifically those that would make good subjects for discussion, those that don’t merely entertain, but give greater food for thought.
From the many submissions received, we have selected fifty titles we feel fulfil the criteria. Each and every one brings something different, refreshing and stimulating.
This is an opportunity to vote for your favourite book on the list, so that we can find The Book to Talk About 2009.
Voting on the long list will end on 2nd January 2009. A short list of ten titles will be announced on 30th January 2009 and voting will recommence. The winner will be announced on World Book Day - Thursday 5th March 2009.
In Declan Burke's review of The Bloomsday Dead, he concludes:
McKinty is a rare writer, one who can combine the conventionally muscular prose of crime fiction with a lyrical flair for language, and the blend is a compelling one. Forsythe is himself a fascinating character, brusque and blunt in his public exchanges, lethal when trapped in a tight spot (of which there are many in this furiously-plotted tale, which loosely follows the path laid down by both Leopold Bloom and Odysseus), yet possessed of a poet's soul during his interior monologues. The violence is graphically etched into the page, as if stamped there by the force of its authenticity, but McKinty never forgets that his first priority is to entertain, leavening the bleakness with flashes of mordant humour.Bad Traffic by Simon Lewis is a rare thing: all three reviews, on the Euro Crime website, are united in their praise and desire to see more from this writer.
Laura Root wrote:
BAD TRAFFIC is a compelling and page-turning thriller. The main characters are convincingly drawn, and Simon Lewis vividly depicts the cultural and language barriers that Jian and Ding Yi experience. I look forward to further books in the Inspector Jian series.Maxine Clarke begins her review:
BAD TRAFFIC is a book that epitomises all that is great about the crime-fiction genre. It has a tight plot that unfolds at breakneck pace; it depicts an alien world vividly; there is a range of believable and sympathetic characters; it constantly unsettles the reader; and the events it describes seem as if they could really happen. Although the book has strong elements of the noir genre, with its atmosphere of Greek tragedy in which events and characters fulfil the dictates of fate and there is an absence of sentiment, the book is by no means boiled as hard as noir often can be - hope and humanity are there to be found, like specks of jewels glistening in the depths.and Terry Halligan concludes his review:
I found this book hugely entertaining and a real page turner and I look forward to reading the next books of this deeply, atmospheric thriller writer.Voting and commenting on the titles requires a simple registration. The free book offer comes from Sort of Books, the publishers of Bad Traffic, who are:
offering free books to the first 25 voters who post a comment about Bad Traffic on the Spread the Word website. All you need to do is email the comment and your postal address to nat@sortof.co.uk.
Maria Rejt at Pan Macmillan has bought three novels in a new historical crime series set in Moscow during Stalin’s Great Terror. Rejt paid a six-figure advance at auction for British and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in the series, written by William Ryan, doing the deal with Andrew Gordon at David Higham.
The series features Captain Alexei Korolev who in the first novel, The Holy Thief, is given the case of investigating a serial killer who is on the loose in Moscow, just as Stalin unleashes his own killing spree. The Holy Thief will be published as a lead title on the Macmillan list in early 2010.
Synopsis from the mogzilla website:Boudicat is the fourth title in the Spartapuss series. It’s a ‘must read’ for kids aged 8 + and cat lovers of all ages.
Queen Boudicat has declared war on Rome and wants Spartapuss to join her rebel army. Our ginger hero can’t see how a tiny tribe of Kitons can take on the mighty Feline Empire. But warrior queens don’t take ‘No’ for an answer. Boudicat is not for turning, she’s for burning!
There's a limited print run of the hardback (released 17th Nov) and the paperback will be out in April 2009.
As well as the books, there's also some Spartapuss merchandise including T-shirts (both adult and kids sizes) and an 'old school' style bag which can be purchased through the Mogzilla ebay shop:
(The current purge by blogger on filtering out spam blogs by insisting on word verification when I write a post seems to be affecting my post scheduling operation.)
As predicted by Mike Ripley, the winner was Laura Wilson for Stratton's War, reviewed here by Mike and here by Maxine Clarke.
The other nominees were:
Ariana Franklin - The Death Maze
Philip Kerr - A Quiet Flame
Andrew Martin - Death on a Branch Line
C J Sansom - Revelation
Andrew Taylor - Bleeding Heart Square
and also
"The CWA Ellis Peters judging panel has also asked for the following books from their long list to be published in recognition of their merit:"
Marjorie Eccles - Last Nocturne
Ann Granger - A Mortal Curiosity
H R F Keating - Inspector Ghote's First Case
R N Morris - A Vengeful Longing
Read more about why the judges chose these books and the eventual winner at the CWA website.
Wiffle Lever to Full! is very funny and nostalgic and though the author's a few years younger than me, I feel I'm from a similar era :-). The title is derived from a phrase that Steven Pacey (Tarrant in Blake's 7) would say in rehearsals when he couldn't remember the dialogue.
The official blog is here.
Synopsis from amazon.co.uk:He may not have a TARDIS or an X-Wing Fighter, but Bob Fischer is boldly going where, um, lots of men have gone before. And, to a lesser extent, possibly even a few women. Encountering gay Cybermen, obsessive Janet Ellis fans and Douglas Adams devotees hell-bent on destroying Blakes 7 lovers with water-pistols, Bob embarks on a marathon twelve-month journey around the country's sci-fi and cult TV conventions. Part fun travelogue, part field report, part misty-eyed childhood memoir, Bob freewheels his way from Doctor Who to Discworld, Star Wars to Star Trek and Robin Of Sherwood to Red Dwarf. In space, no one can hear you scream. And don't expect much sympathy in Peterborough, either.
Crime Fiction conventions differ from sci-fi conventions in that very little fancy dress is required (a similar amount of drinking seems to be involved though).
There's also an audio interview, here about the stunts and the 'new' style Bond
and don't forget tonight's Film 2008 is a Daniel Craig/Quantum of Solace special:
With privileged access to the cast and crew, Jonathan Ross provides the lowdown on the return of Commander James Bond in Quantum of Solace. On set at 007's spiritual home he meets the actor who's made the role his own, Daniel Craig, plus the actor playing Bond's nemesis, Mathieu Almaric, as well as director Marc Forster. Also, a look at how the iconic Bond character is defined in the 21st century, by everything from his costume design to the film's soundtrack.
Newsbeat speaks to Richard Armitage, best known as Sir Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, about his role in the show as an agent returning to MI5 after being imprisoned in Russia.Read the interview, here.
To Neville Moir at Polygon, HUGH AND CRY by Shirley McKay, the first in a series of historical crime novels set in St Andrews during the reign of James VI and starring a young lawyer, Hew Cullan. The opening chapters were shortlisted for the 2002 Debut Dagger award. UK and Commonwealth rights from agent John Beaton, for publication in June 2009.
New Reviews:
I review the latest in the Agatha Raisin series by M C Beaton Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison which I enjoyed as usual as the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth books are must reads for me;
Amanda Brown reviews the final entry in the Merde series by Stephen Clarke, Dial M for Merde a James Bond spoof which sounds very comical;
Maxine Cl