Latest Crime News Round-Up

Arthur Ellis Award Results -

The winners of the 2011 Arthur Ellis Awards were announced on recently by the Crime Writers of Canada for excellence in works in the crime/mystery/thriller genre published for the first time in the previous year by permanent residents of Canada, or by Canadian citizens living abroad.

Best Crime Novel: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny (Little, Brown)
Best First Crime Novel: The Debba by Avner Mandleman (Random House)
Best Crime Novel in French: Dans le quartier des agités by Jacques Côté (Éditions Alire)
Best Crime Non-Fiction: On the Farm by Stevie Cameron (Alfred A. Knopf)
Best Juvenile/Young Adult Crime Book: Lost For Words (The Worst Thing She Ever Did) by Alice Kuipers (HarperCollins)
Best Crime Short Story: "So Much in Common" by Mary Jane Maffini (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
Best First Unpublished Crime Novel: Better Off Dead by John Jeneroux

Alibi teamed up with HarperCollins and Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Harrogate to unearth some of the country's hottest new crime-writing talent of 2011.The shortlist has been drawn up and voting is now open. You can vote here? The overall winner will be announced during a special reception at Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

Those of us that are waiting for the release of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy will be pleased to learn that the date it will be released will be September 2011 for the UK and November for the US. With an all-star cast featuring amongst others, former Bond villain Toby Jones, Oscar winner Colin Firth, Kathy Burke, Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch and John Hurt. Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy is an adaptation of John Le Carre‘s classic spy thriller that follows a British Intelligence operative whose task is to delve into the world of Cold War espionage and root out a Soviet mole in the Circus, the highest echelon in the British Intelligence Services.

Very interesting article on the Library Journal website about the gender reading stereotypes. A lot of suspense writers have commented on it. Makes for very interesting reading!

Nordic Bookblog have an interesting book review on The Tattooed Girl the Enigma of Stieg Larsson. Sounds that this will be of added interest to all those fans of Stieg Larsson!

Barry Forshaw whose book The Man Who Left Too Soon: The Biography of Stieg Larsson was published in 2010 is due to be the keynote speaker at a one-day symposium taking place at the University of Hertfordshire. Under the auspices of Film in Humanities the symposium will consist of talks and discussions on Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy - as a series of books, television programmes, and films.

With the recent release of the latest James Bond book, there is an interesting article in the Guardian about James Bond’s changing incarnations. The responses are as interesting as the article itself.

If you missed it the first time around then there is another chance to see the three-part series Whitechapel (Jack the Ripper) again. Featuring Rupert Penry-Jones it will be shown on ITV3 at 9pm on Monday 13 and Tuesday 14 June 2011.

With lots of us looking forward to Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories due to be shown on BBC1 on Sunday 5 June at 9pm it is interesting to read Jason Isaac’s comments (not that I agree with them) on Jackson Brodie not being a detective. Are we talking about the same character here? I see this more as a marketing ploy not that I think one is needed.

Fans of the mobster film Goodfellas will enjoy reading 50 genius but useless facts about the film!

According to the Bookseller, former CWA Chair Tom Harper has moved publishers. Formerly published by Random House’s Cornerstone his next three books will be published by Hodder & Stoughton. The books described as "literary conspiracy thrillers.

From books to film!

According to NYmag.com David Fincher has optioned Jason Starr’s 2009 crime novel Panic Attack, about a New York shrink who shoots and kills a home intruder, then faces a media frenzy and the victim's vengeful accomplice.

Deadline.com have announced that Chris Columbus who produced a number of the Harry Potter films as well as Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightening Thief has acquired the fill rights to Michael Koryta’s thriller The Cypress House. There is also an excellent article in CNN about his latest book The Ridge.

Kerry Greenwood’s series featuring 1920s-era private detective Phryne Fisher is due (according to Australian ABC) to be made into a 13 part ABC series. Phryne Fisher is a sleuth who sashays through the back lanes and jazz clubs of late 1920s Melbourne, fighting injustice with her pearl-handled pistol and her dagger sharp wit.

According to Variety.com Brendan Fraser, Matt Dillon and Craig Robinson have all signed up to the film adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s crime novel Freaky Deaky. William H Macy has already committed himself to the project.