Newsy Stuff

The tagline “Getting Away With Murder” is not only the tagline for Mike Ripley’s delightful monthly column but it has also been used by the Guardian’s Lucy Mangan’s recent Agatha Christie article. Lucy Mangan’s article looks at whether or not Dame Agatha Christie is actually as good as her fans say or whether it is just fantasy. You can see for yourself here. What do you think? Do you believe that Lucy Mangan has got it wrong or did Dame Agatha Christie get it right?

At the same time Alison Food selects what she considers to be the five best books written by Dame Agatha Christie. Do you agree?

There are more books on their way to the Frankfurt Book Fair –
Ed Victor is bringing the début crime novel from Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer. Already acquired by Headline Plugged will be published in August 2011 in the UK whilst Overlook Press in the US will publish the book. The noir novel features an Irish bouncer in New Jersey, finding himself embroiled in a world of murder, kidnapping and corrupt cops.

The Agency are also taking with them Ranulph Fiennes adventure novel Killer Elite which was originally published in the 1991 as The Feathermen. The book is currently being filmed (staring Robert de Niro) and is due for release in Summer 2011. Killer Elite(The Feathermen)is about a secret organisation that is dedicated to protecting ex-SAS men. Hodder in the UK and Ballantine in the US will publish the books to tie-in with the film. It is not to be confused with the 1975 Sam Peckinpah film The Killer Elite.

Luigi Bonomi Associates are bringing with them Covenant a début novel by début author Dean Crawford. Covenant is said to be a “terrific fast-paced action-adventure novel” about the discovery of a 7,000-year-old tomb containing the body of an alien. World rights have been sold to Maxine Hitchcock at Simon & Schuster and to Stacy Creamer at Touchstone USA.

Meanwhile the Darley Anderson Agency will be selling the US and translation rights to Recorder (Part-time Judge) and best selling author of the novels Ugly and Beyond Ugly Constance Briscoe’s début thriller Partners in Crime. The novel is due to be published by Ebury in the UK in 2011. Darley Anderson will also have the début crime novel The Wrong Man by Jason Dean. It will be on offer not only in the UK but also the US and translation rights will be available.

Hodder and Stoughton have bought the rights to three historical military intelligence novels by début author Nick Brown. The first book, Agent of Rome: The Siege is set in the Syrian Desert in AD 270, and will introduce young military intelligence officer, Cassius Quintius Corbulo. Agent of Rome: The Siege will be published in June 2011. With the following two Corbulo novels due for publication in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

According to book2book, Chatto have acquired the true crime début novel Damn His Blood by début author Peter Moore. Damn His Blood is a story set in Georgian England.

Matthew Lewin takes a look at Laura Wilson’s new historical crime novel A Capital Crime (the third in the Ted Stratton series) and pronounces it historical crime fiction at its best.

Author Jessie Keane is to reunite with her editor Wayne Brookes at Pan Macmillan. Brookes discovered Keane whilst he was at Harper Collins. The first of the three titles for Pan Macmillan will be published in 2012. Meanwhile Keane’s next title for Harper Collins is The Make and is due to be published in January 2011 with a further book to follow.

According to the Guardian and confirmed by Fry himself, Stephen Fry is set to play Mycroft Holmes, the elder and brainer brother of Sherlock Holmes. Meanwhile, Jared Harris (the son of the late Richard Harris) who is best known for playing Lane Pryce in the hit television programme Mad Men is due to play Professor James Moriarty in the sequel as well.

So which other literary sleuths would you like to see on the television? Maxim Jakubowski takes a look at the television version of Peter Robinson’s DCI Banks and suggests a number of other literary detectives that would be worth seeing on television.

Congratulations to Colin Bateman or Bateman as he is better known on his books!. According to book2book, Headline have signed a seven-book deal with the author. The contract will cover three new novels, two in the bestselling Mystery Man series and one continuing the Dan Starkey series, and four backlist titles. The BBC has also optioned Mystery Man and casting is taking place. The first book in the new contract Dr Yes has recently been published.