Newsy Stuff - Good News and Bad News

The Good News

There will be a number of well-known Russian authors attending the London Book Fair later on this year. According to the press release (via Booktrade info) The programme will feature 49 authors, poets, critics and academics, representing Russia and will be bringing the best in contemporary Russian writing and publishing to London in April and through a series of high-profile trade and public events will foster mutual understanding between Russia and the UK through literature and help facilitate long-term partnerships. Amongst those due to attend will be Boris Akunin. He will be London Book Fair's Market Focus Author of the Day on Tuesday 12th April. Boris Akunin is one of the most widely read authors in Russia and his Erast Fandorian novels have sold over eighteen million copies in Russia alone.

The Los Angeles Times have announced the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists.

The authors in the Mystery and Thriller category are –

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (William Morrow)

Faithful Place by Tana French (Viking)

I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Collusion by Stuart Neville (SoHo Press)

City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur Books/A Thomas Dunne Book)

The full list of nominees can be found here.

The 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes will be awarded April 29, 2011, in a ceremony at the Los Angeles Times building.

No Exit Press have according to the Bookseller acquired The Killer is Dying by James Sallis. The book follows three characters: a hitman on his final job, a detective caring for his ill wife and a young boy living on the streets, and how their lives are linked despite them never meeting. Sallis is also the author of the acclaimed novel Drive which has been made into a film featuring Ryan Gosling and is due to be released in September 2011.

According to the Bookseller Headline have acquired The God of Gotham, a novel set in 19th-century New York. Set in 1845 during the establishment of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the potato famine in Ireland, the novel follows a fledgling police officer's investigation into a murderer intent on fanning the flames of anti-Irish immigrant sentiment.

Headline’s fiction publisher at large Martin Fletcher has also acquired two sets of acquisitions. The first is a two-book deal by Cityboy author Geraint Anderson. His debut novel Just Business will be published in June 2011. The second is two novels by thriller writer Steven Dunne. Dunne is moving from HarperCollins as part of the deal. The first book entitled Deity, is about five college students who appear to have committed suicide. It will be published in May 2012.

Orion have launched a new imprint. The new imprint to be known as Swordfish will publish a wide range of commercial non-fiction as well as a small selection of fiction. The fiction selection will be aiming for "big, distinctive thrillers". The first fiction title will be Spartan by Matthew Dunn, a début thriller by the ex-MI6 field operative.

Gordon Ferris’s novel The Hanging Shed has received some rave reviews on its early release as an ebook.

However, according to The Daily Record some readers are having problem with The Hanging Shed because they can’t understand the Ayrshire and Glaswegian slang in the novel.

And the Bad news ---

Is that the BBC have decided to axe the excellent crime series Zen. According to the Guardian BBC 1 Controller Danny Cohen has decided not to renew the series despite the excellent reviews that it received. Not sure what this is about as Zen was one of the better crime dramas to be shown earlier this year. It is a shame and I hope that this decision will be reviewed.