Latest Crime News Round-Up

For those of you that missed out on the event of the year i.e. Crime in the Court then have no fear as the redoubtable David Headley of Goldsboro Books will be having another crime fiction related event in September. This time the event will be History in the Court. The date is 29 September and there will be historical re-enactments taking place. Watch this space for more information!

According to the Bookseller Ian Fleming Publications have appointed Curtis Brown as the worldwide literary agents for the Ian Fleming James Bond novels as well as future Bond literary works. Jonny Geller and Curtis Brown are taking over from Simon Trewin at United Agents.

Sphere have according to the Bookseller have signed Scottish author Alex Gray to two more books in her Glasgow based crime series.

Despite the fact that her editor Kate Eldon has moved to HarperCollins, bestselling author Karin Slaughter has signed up again to a two-book contract to Century.

Harvill Secker have signed Norwegian author Jo Nesbø to a single book deal. Nesbø is the author of the Harry Hole novels. According to the Bookseller the Phantom is the sequel to the bestselling novel The Leopard and will be published in January 2012.

The public vote for World Book Night 2012 is now open to the public so that members of the public can nominate their favourite 10 novels. More information can be found here. The vote is open until 31 August 2011.

Interesting article in the New York Times by Jeff Lindsay the author of the Dexter series. In his article he talks about writing his Dexter series and why we are so fascinated by serial killers.

Congratulations go to Mulholland UK who are due to publish Iced by Bernard Minier, a debut French crime writer. The full news can be found here.

With a five part mini-series currently being shown on Sky Atlantic featuring Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood, Sarah Churchwell's article in the Guardian about re-reading James M Cain’s Mildred Pierce wonders what has been gained and lost with the Todd Haynes adaptation.

With the recent release of her memoir There Are Things I Want You To Know' About Stieg Larsson and Me about her relationship with Stieg Larsson, Eva Gabrielsson his common-law-widow answers a Q&A for the Wall Street Journal online. The is also a Los Angeles Times Books article as well.

With Jeffrey Deaver still on his James Bond duty with the recent launch of Carte Blanche, TheWeek.com have a list of his six favourite espionage novels. Needless to say and unsurprisngly there is at least one Ian Fleming novel on the list as well as a John le Carré novel and Len Deighton.

John le Carré has been awarded the Goethe Medal for his contribution to "the development of coalescence, peace and creativity in Europe". The full article can be found in the Guardian.

With Smokin’ Seventeen just released in the US, Janet Evanovich talks to USA Today about all things Plum related and the fact that for the first time there will be two numbered Plum books released in 2011. Explosive Eighteen will be released in November in the USA.

A group of best-selling authors has teamed up to urge the public to donate money to a cutting-edge university facility - a morgue. According to the BBC author Val McDermid along with other luminaries such as Lee Child, Stuart McBride and Tess Gerristen have already pledged their support. The Guardian article can be found here.

According to Publishers Weekly, under the auspices of its Vintage Crime/Black Lizard imprint, Vintage Books is launching the Weekly Lizard, a mobile-optimized online site devoted to news and feature content about crime and mystery writing. It will also offer content under several topical sections on the site. First up includes a feature on Ruth Rendell by Val McDermid. She writes about the longevity of Inspector Wexford.

Huffington Post asks their readers to pick their favourite book character that they would most like to sleep with. So far the entries include Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre, Acheron from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series (now that I can understand), Mr Darcy, Sherlock Holmes, Lady Chatterley, Albert Campion, Willie Garvin (Modesty Blaise’s sidekick), Alex Cross, Elisabeth Salander, Ranger and Morelli from Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Roarke from J D Robb’s InDeath series (another one I can understand), Rhett Butler, Atticus Finch, Harry Dresden, Philip Marlowe and Lucas Davenport to name a few!

According to Deadline.com Jennifer Lopez is in talks to play the lead female opposite Jason Statham in Parker, the Taylor Hackford-directed action film adaptation of the Donald Westlake mystery novel series. The character has already been played by Lee Marvin in Point Blank and of late by Mel Gibson in Playback.

According to Inside Movies actor Antonio Banderas is teeming up with Pedro Almodóvar for the thriller The Skin I Live In. What initially looks like a straightforward hold-up turns into something entirely different. The Trailer can be seen below!


La Piel Que Habito Teaser / flix.gr by Flixgr
The Skin I Live In was shown earlier at Cannes 2011. The Guardian review can be found here.

ITV have re-commissioned another series of Lewis. Three of the new films are currently titled - ‘Generation of Vipers’, ‘The Age of Foolishness’ and ‘Death of the Author. Former Bond villain Toby Stephens will star in one of the episodes and Morse creator Colin Dexter will continue to act as series consultant

If you were like me and positively devoured the award winning series of graphic novels 100 Bullets written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso then I am sure that you will be pleased learn that according to Deadline.com, Showtime have joined forces with David S Goyer to write and executive produce 100 Bullets as a drama series project as a potential TV series. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. 100 Bullets was an absolutely fantastic series of graphc novels.

According to TV Eh?, Canada’s source for information on Canadian Television shows three Canadian authors have had their books optioned for television series. The authors are William Deverell, Giles Blunt and Robert Rotenberg. The full media release can be found here. Deverell's series, set in the Gulf Islands and featuring attorney Arthur Beaucham, won the Hammett award for crime writing in 1997; Giles Blunt's Detective John Cardinal series won Britain's Silver Dagger Award for Fiction in 2001; and Robert Rotenberg's debut novel Old City Hall, about a popular radio host who is arrested for murdering his wife. Giles Blunt is said to be adapting his own material for television.

Vigilante Entertainment has optioned bestselling true-crime author Gregg Olsen's book Starvation Heights. Set in the Pacific Northwest it is the story of a egotistical woman doctor who took advantage of the popularity of Dr. Kellogg's health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan and starved her patients to death.

Those of you that have been following Bouchercon memories over on the Bouchercon2011 blog may be interested to note that are very own Ali Karim has his own Bouchercon memory up on the blog. My Bouchercon memory can be found here.

The sad news of the death of Martin Greenberg has just been revealed by Mystery Fanfare Those of you that are fans of anthologies and short stories will no doubt recognise his name. Martin Greenberg was the editor of many an anthology spanning crime, horror and speculative fiction. I can attest to the fact of what a prolific editor he was by just looking on my own bookshelves where I stack my anthologies. He will most certainly be sorely missed. (Thanks to Janet Rudolph for the sad news)