Newsy Stuff

Excellent article in the Independent by Val McDermid on the progress in lesbian fiction. The full article can be found here. Val McDermid’s latest book Trick of the Dark has just been published by Little Brown. It is her twenty-sixth novel (including two collections of short stories) and her sixth standalone book. Val McDermid will also be on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday talking to Mariella Frostrup about her new book at 4pm.

Simon Scarrow best known for his historical roman military series is branching out according to booktrade.info. Scarrow is to produce for Puffin a series of books for boys 10 years and above. The series will be known as Gladiator and the first book in the series Gladiator: Fight for Freedom will be published by Puffin in February 2011. The full press notice can be found here.


According to the Telegraph up to 10 of Jeffrey Archer’s novels will soon be seen on the big screen after he agreed and signed a deal with Canadian Businessman Jeffrey Steiner who bought the rights. The contract covers the international film, television and digital rights. It is not the first time that Archer’s books have been televised. In 1990 his first novel Not a Penny More, Not a Penny was the basis of a television mini-series and First Among Equals his parliamentary thriller was in 1986 turned into a 10-part drama by ITV.


Don Winslow is according to Jiro Kimura at the Gumshoe website the 2010 recipient of the Maltese Falcon Award which is given out by the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan. The award is for the best hard-boiled/private eye novel published in Japan in the previous year.” The 2010 award was given to Don Winslow for his novel The Year of the Dog. (Thanks to the wonderful Janet Rudolph of Mystery Fanfare for the information!) Congratulations to Don Winslow. Don Winslow will be Toastmaster at Crimefest in 2011.

Looking for a blog that will give you an insight into all things crime fiction related? Then look no further! Best Colleges online.net have rounded up what they consider to be the best 50 blogs for mystery readers covering news, reviews and publishing, bookshops, true crime, authors and online fiction. Of course, yours truly is on the list and in the top 5. Congratulations to all of those who made the list. The full list can be found here.