Heffers Bookstore in Cambridge Announce launch parties

Dates for your diary - Launch parties at 6.30pm:

July 9th: Emily Winslow’s debut Cambridge-set mystery features American students Polly and Liv who both fall for the same charming graduate student. Then he disappears. Told through five narrators whose personal obsessions limit what each of them sees, The Whole World is the story of the desperation and malice that take them by surprise while they're all looking elsewhere.

July 12th: Nicola Upson’s Two For Sorrow is the third book in the Josephine Tey & Archie Penrose series after An Expert in Murder and An Angel with Two Faces. In London, 1903, two women are hanged in Holloway Prison for killing babies. More than thirty years later, their crimes resurface with shocking consequences… When Josephine Tey sets out to write a novel about Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, the notorious Finchley baby farmers, she can have little idea that the research for her book will be needed to help solve a modern-day killing.

July 14th: In Alison Bruce's second book of the Cambridge-set DC Gary Goodhew series after Cambridge Blue, all it takes is one small item on the regional news for Kimberly Guyver and Rachel Golinski to know that their checkered past is catching up with them. Within hours, Rachel's home is burning and Kimberly's young son Riley is missing.

Lunchtime Signings – 1.00pm

July 23rd: Jeffery Deaver will be signing copies of the latest Lincoln Rhyme, The Burning Wire.

July 6th: Peter Robinson will be signing copies of the latest Alan Banks, Bad Boy.

Tickets are FREE and available from the cash desk at

Heffers Bookshop, 20 Trinity Street, Cambridge (01223-568568) or by contacting Richard Reynolds on 01223 568532 or by email at literature@heffers.co.uk.

July 15th: Bodies in the Bookshop at 6.00pm: 20th Anniversary

Join us for a glass of wine and make murder your business at our annual crime fiction extravaganza for an evening free from speeches and readings – a great chance to meet both debut and established crime writers including:

The line-up so far: Don Bartlett (Translator of novels by the Norwegian authors K. O. Dahl, Jo Nesbo, Pernille Rygg and Gunnar Staalesen), A. L. Berridge, Richard Blake, Alison Bruce, Armand Cabasson, Charlie Charters, Mary Andrea Clarke, Rory Clements, Barbara Cleverly, Adam Creed, John Curran, Ruth Downie, Ruth Dudley Edwards, JT Ellison, Ann Featherstone, Jason Goodwin, Dolores Gordon-Smith, Eliza Graham, Michael Gregorio, Lucretia Grindle, Elliott Hall, Sophie Hannah, Veronica Heley, Suzette Hill, Matt Hilton, Lis Howell, Seth Hunter, Rebecca Jenkins, Erin Kelly, Jim Kelly, Laurie R. King, Patrick Lennon, Adrian Magson, Rose Melikan, R. N . Morris, Janet Neel, Chris Nickson, Gerard O'Donovan, Christine Poulson, Ann Purser, Philip Purser, Sheila Quigley, Mike Ripley, Imogen Robertson, Leigh Russell, William Ryan, E. V. Seymour, Lynn Shepherd, Stav Sherez, Harry Sidebottom, Roz Southey, Lyndon Stacey, L. C. Tyler, Nicola Upson, Andrew Williams, Emily Winslow and many more

Check out the photos from 2005

Peter Temple wins Major Literary Award

Australian Author Peter Temple who won the CWA’s Gold Dagger Award in 2007 with his novel The Broken Shore has added another literary award to his collection. On Tuesday (22nd June)Peter Temple was awarded Australia's most prestigious literary prize, the Miles Franklin Award for his novel Truth. More information from the Sydney Morning Herald can be found here.

A former journalist, along with the Gold Dagger Award from the CWA Peter Temple has also won 5 Ned Kelly Awards, the Colin Roderick Award (which is presented annually by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies, James Cook University, for "the best book published in Australia which deals with any aspect of Australian life")in 2005 again for The Broken Shore and the Australian Book Publishers' Award for best general fiction in 2006 once more for The Broken Shore.


The award was first won in 1957 by Patrick White and is given to the novel of the year which is of the highest literary merit and which must present Australian life in its many phases'. Truth is the first crime novel to be shortlisted and win the Miles Franklin Award.

An interview with Peter Temple for Shots can be found here

Barry Award Nominations 2010 Announced

From the hard working George Easter Editor of Deadly Pleasures Magazine, we have the Barry Award Nominations with a special award this year – Mystery / Crime Novel of The Decade.

BARRY AWARD NOMINATIONS 2010

BEST NOVEL

John Connolly, THE GATES, Atria
David Ellis, THE HIDDEN MAN, Putnam

Joe Gores, SPADE & ARCHER, Knopf

John Hart, THE LAST CHILD, Minotaur

Marcia Muller, LOCKED IN, Grand Central
S.J. Rozan, SHANGHAI MOON, Minotaur

BEST FIRST NOVEL

Josh Bazell, BEAT THE REAPER, Little, Brown
Alan Bradley, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Delacorte

Rebecca Cantrell, A TRACE OF SMOKE, Forge

Sophie Littlefield, A BAD DAY FOR SORRY, Minotaur

Attica Locke, BLACK WATER RISING, Harper

Stuart Neville, THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST (THE TWELVE), Soho Crime

BEST BRITISH NOVEL

S. J. Bolton, AWAKENING, Bantam Press

John Connolly, THE LOVERS, HodderStoughton

Reginald Hill, MIDNIGHT FUGUE, HarperCollins

Philip Kerr, IF THE DEAD NOT RISE, Quercus

Denise Mina, STILL MIDNIGHT, Orion

Robert Wilson, IGNORANCE OF BLOOD, HarperCollins

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

Megan Abbott, BURY ME DEEP, Simon & Schuster

Max Allan Collins, QUARRY IN THE MIDDLE, HardCase Crime

Bryan Gruley, STARVATION LAKE, Touchstone

Heather Gutenkauf, THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE, Mira

Frank Tallis, FATAL LIES, Random House Mortalis

L. C. Tyler, THE HERRING-SELLER'S APPRENTICE, Felony & Mayhem

BEST THRILLER

Tom Cain, NO SURVIVORS (THE SURVIVOR), Viking

Jamie Freveletti, RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, Morrow
Mark Greaney, THE GRAY MAN, Jove

Derek Haas, COLUMBUS: a Silver Bear Thriller, Pegasus

Mike Lawson, HOUSE SECRETS, Atlantic Monthly

Greg Rucka, WALKING DEAD, Bantam

MYSTERY/CRIME NOVEL OF THE DECADE

Ken Bruen, THE GUARDS, St. Martin's Minotaur

Michael Connelly, THE LINCOLN LAWYER, Little, Brown

Stieg Larsson, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, Knopf

Dennis Lehane, MYSTIC RIVER, Morrow

Louise Penny, STILL LIFE, St. Martin's Minotaur

Carlos Ruiz Zafon, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, Penguin Press

BEST SHORT STORY

Barbara Callahan, "My Mother's Keeper" (EQMM June 2009)

David Dean, "Erin's Journal" (EQMM December 2009)

John H. Dirckx, "Real Men Die" (AHMM September 2009)

Brendan DuBois, "The High House Writer" (AHMM July-August 2009)

Melodie Johnson Howe, "A Hollywood Ending" (EQMM July 2009)

Morley Swingle, "Hard Blows" (THE PROSECUTION RESTS )

Congratulations to all the nominated and see you all at Bouchercon San Francisco this Fall when the winners will be announced

Photo of George Easter ©2008 A Karim taken at Bouchercon Baltimore Announcing the Barry Awards

Double Like You

Congratulations to Peter James, the writer of the bestselling Roy Grace Detective series, set in Brighton by. James’ latest thriller DEAD LIKE YOU has hit the No 1 position with a double bullet according to The Bookseller –

Peter James has scored a UK first by being number one in both physical and iBook formats at the same time. This morning the crime author knocked Chris Evans' memoir It's Not What You Think (HarperCollins) off the top of the iBookstore charts, where it has been sitting since Apple launched the iPad on 28th May.

Although no figures have been released, James' Quick Read title The Perfect Murder (Pan Macmillan) has now reached Apple's digital summit. James is also currently number one in the Original Fiction charts with his new hardback release Dead Like You.

Geoff Duffield, group sales and marketing director for Pan Macmillan, said: "It’s absolutely fantastic to have the same author with different books at number one in the physical and digital worlds... What we are seeing there is recognition from readers that he is a brand that delivers."

Not read Peter James? Then this is a good place to start to catch up

RIP Clare Curzon (1922-2010)

Clare Curzon a prolific author and member of the CWA died peacefully on Thursday 20 May 2010. A stalwart of the St Albans Chapter of the CWA she will be sorely missed by them and throughout the country. Her funeral took place on Tuesday 8 June 2010.

Clare Curzon wrote over forty novels under a number of names but was best known for her Mike Yeadings series that was set in Thames Valley. The first book in the series published in 1983 was I Give You Five Days. She subsequently went on to write twenty-three other books in the series. The most recent one to be published is Devil in the Detail which was published by Severn House Publishers earlier this year. Much of her work concerned the dynamics within close knit communities.

Under the name Clare Curzon she also wrote two books Trail of Fire (1987) and Shot Bolt (1988) which featured the character Sian Vassilakis. She also wrote three books in the Stakerly Series which were set in 1900s London, England and featured the character Lucy Sedgewick. The first book in the series Guilty Knowledge (1999) was short-listed for the Ellis Peters Historical dagger in 2000. In 2000 Guilty Knowledge won the 2000 Herodotus Award for Best First International Historical Mystery.

She also wrote a number of non series novels. In 1995 along with Gillian Linscott, Peter Lovesey, Dorothy Simpson and Margaret Yorke she contributed to a collection entitled A Dead Give Away.

Using the name Rhona Petrie she wrote five police procedurals featuring Marcus Maclurg a Police Inspector in England. The first book in the series was Death in Deakins Wood (1963). The last book in the series was Maclurg goes West (1968). Also under the name of Rhona Petrie she wrote two books featuring Dr Nassim Pride an Anglo-Sudanese forensic Scientist set in Geneva Switzerland. The books were Foreign Bodies (1967) and Despatch of a Dove (1969). Alongside these she also wrote two non-series books Come Hell and High Water (1970) which is a collection of short-stories and Thorne in the Flesh.

As Marie Buchanan she also wrote five books – Greenshards (1972), An Unofficial Breath (1973), The Dark Backward (1975), Morgana (1977) and Countess of Sedgwick (1980).

She will be sorely missed.

The Lost Larsson

The Independent reports today that two unpublished Science Fiction short stories by the young Stieg Larsson have been uncovered –

The good news for Stieg Larsson addicts: two unpublished manuscripts have been unearthed in his native Sweden. The bad news: they have nothing to do with the Millennium trilogy and, in any case, fans might never be able to read them.

The National Library of Sweden last night revealed that it was in possession of two science fiction stories, sent by a 17-year-old Larsson to a magazine in the 1970s in an attempt at making his publishing debut.

Unlike the labyrinthine Millennium novels, the teenage works, The Crystal Balls and The Flies, are not thought to run to more than five pages each.

In a letter accompanying his speculative submission to the Jules Verne magazine, Larsson described himself as "a 17-year-old guy from Umea in the north of Sweden with dreams of becoming an author and journalist".

The magazine abruptly crushed those dreams, rejecting his first tentative literary efforts.
Decades later, in 2007, the stories were donated to the library as part of a wider archive provided by the Jules Verne magazine. And there they gathered dust until yesterday, and the library's public revelation.

The big question now is whether these teenage stories will ever be seen by Larsson's ravenous public.

Read More here

Over at the Website....

New for June:

Mike Ripley is still GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER and I don't get left out in his latest report.

Michael Carlson sets his AMERICAN EYE upon Jo Nesbø in a very good Q&A

Please welcome newcomer to the fold, Robin Jarossi. Robin is a media journalist and has filed his first column titled CRIMINAL ACTS. He reports on current and upcoming British TV and Radio programmes. In his first column he spotlights the TV Drama FATHER & SON which stars Dougray Scott

The Girl with the Dragon tattoo film news.

According to The Wrap one of the biggest roles in Hollywood is about to be taken off the table.

Daniel Craig is nearing a deal to take the lead role in a U.S. adaptation of the Swedish blockbuster trilogy, "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," TheWrap has learned.

David Fincher will direct the crime thriller, based on a trilogy by the late Swedish novelist and journalist Stieg Larsson.

Actresses including Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan have expressed interest in playing Lisbeth Salander, a computer hacker recruited by a journalist to find a woman who has been missing for 40 years. That part has not yet been cast, and other actresses including Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman have also expressed interest. Craig would play journalist Mikael Blomkvist who is looking for the missing woman, Harriet Vanger.

A Sony spokesman however has said, "We have not offered any roles to anyone nor are we negotiating with anyone."

While Brad Pitt has been reportedly considering the lead role, an individual close to the negotiations said that Craig was close to a deal. The James Bond star will fly out to Los Angeles on Friday to have dinner with Fincher, who's slated to direct the three-picture franchise for Sony. The movie will shoot in October, and is slated for release in December 2011.

Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy," which includes "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played With Fire," and "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest," has sold over 25 million copies around the world. A Danish film adaptation of "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was released last year and has been playing internationally.

Negotiations between Craig and Sony aren't entirely finished, but TheWrap was told he's extremely close to signing. Brad Pitt was also reportedly considering the role.

Craig begins shooting on Jon Favreau's "Cowboys & Aliens" next week. "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" would be his next movie.

Awards - Nominations and winners

The 2010 Nero Award nominees have been announced –

This year, the nominees are:
The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
Crack in the Lens by Steve Hockensmith
Faces of Gone by Brad Parks

The Nero Award is presented each year to an author for the best mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories. It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. The Nero Award celebrates literary excellence in the mystery genre.

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers announced that The Manual of Detection, by Jedediah Berry (Penguin), has won the 2010 Hammett Prize for “literary excellence in the field of crime writing.” Berry received his award during a special ceremony at the Bloody Words X Mystery Conference in Toronto, Canada.

The other nominees for the Hammett Prize were:-
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott (Simon & Schuster)
Devil’s Garden by Ace Atkins (Putnam)
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley (Riverhead)
The Way Home by George Pelecanos (Little Brown)


The Lambda Literary Awards were announced May 27 at the School of Visual Arts Theater in New York.

The winners in Mystery Fiction -

Best Lesbian Mystery:
Death of a Dying Man by J.M. Redmann (Bold Strokes Books)(Winner)
Command of Silence, by Paulette Callen (Spinsters Ink)
From Hell to Breakfast, by Joan Opyr (Blue Feather Books)
The Mirror and the Mask, by Ellen Hart (St. Martin’s/Minotaur)
Toasted, by Josie Gordon (Bella Books)

Best Gay Mystery:
What We Remember by Michael Thomas Ford (Kensington Books)(Winner)
All Lost Things, by Josh Aterovis (P.D. Publishing)
Killer of Orchids, by Ralph Ashworth (State Street Press)
Murder in the Garden District, by Greg Herren (Alyson Books)
Straight Lies, by Rob Byrnes (Kensington Books)

Crime Writers of Canada have announced the winners of its 2010 Arthur Ellis Awards:-
Best Crime Novel: High Chicago by Howard Shrier (Vintage Canada/Random House)
Best First Crime Novel: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley (Doubleday Canada)
Best French Language Crime Novel: Le mort du chemin des Arsène by Jean Lemieux (La courte échelle)
Best Juvenile Crime Novel: Haunted by Barbara Haworth Attard (HarperCollins)
Best Crime Non-fiction: Murder Without Borders by Terry Gould (Random House of Canada)
Best Crime Short Story: “Prisoner in Paradise” by Dennis Richard Murphy (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine [EQMM])
Best Unpublished First Crime Novel (The Unhanged Arthur): Corpse Flower by Gloria Ferris
The full list of Arthur Ellis nominees can be found here

The Derrick Murdoch Award was given to Peter Robinson. The award is the “Crime Writers of Canada’s Presidential prize for outstanding contributions to crime writing.”

Congratulations to all nominees and winners.

When Writers Read

Crime / Thriller Enthusiast and reviewer Jen Forbus recorded a fun video featuring some of the key writers from the genre reading



From critic - Jen Forbus