A rather long over due round up of crime fiction news –
Congratulations to the nominees announced this past weekend for the annual T. Jefferson Parker Book Award for Mystery & Thrillers, presented by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association:
- The Sentry by Robert Crais (Putnam)
- San Diego Noir edited by Maryelizabeth Hart (Akashic Books)
- Savages by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster)
- The Informant by Thomas Perry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
There is an excellent interview in the Guardian with CWA Diamond Dagger Author Val McDermid. Certainly worth reading as she talks about football and phone hacking amongst other things!
Not sure where to start when it comes to Nordic crime authors? Well www.cleveland.com have done a eally good job of rounding up 10 examples that you could do well to take a look at. Of course Stieg Larsson is on the list!
The Irish Times have an excellent review of Declan Burke’s latest novel Absolute Zero Cool. This is one book that I am dying to get my hands on sooner rather than later. If you have not made Declan’s blog Crime Always Pays your one stop shop for all things relating to Irish crime writing then you are missing a treat.
With Bouchercon 2011 on the horizon in just over a month’s time there is a timely article in the Riverfront Times as to why you should be attending this august convention. The Shots crew will of course be there in force and I shall hopefully be doing some blogging and tweeting as @shotsblog as time permits. If you are still dithering as to whether or not you should attend, then hopefully the article will persuade you to do so. On the Friday at 8:30am I shall be on a panel Bad Blood: Celebrating Agatha Christie. The other members of the panel are Val McDermid, G M Malliet and Caroline Hart. The moderator will be Ted Hertel. At 11:30am on Saturday I shall be moderating the panel The Dead Line:Behind the White Picket Fence. The panel members are Megan Abbott, Daniel Woodrell, Thomas H Cook, Paul Doiron & P L Gaus. Ali Karim will be moderating the panel Falls the Shadow: Globalization of Crime Fiction on Saturday at 11:30am as well. The members of his panel are Mark Billingham, Sarah Blaedal, Karin Slaughter, Deon Meyer and Martyn Waites.
Interesting article on the Criminal Minds blog from one of my all time favourite authors Gary Philips on how much modern technology Ivan Monk would actually embrace.
There is an excellent article on Peter Rozovsky blog Detectives Beyond Borders where he talks about humour in Swedish Crime novels. He specifically mentions Three Seconds by Roslund and Helström. This has been followed up by a further article on the blog The Game’s Afoot where Arnaldur Indridason’s humour is discussed.
The Montreal Mirror also has an article on Nordic crime. The article discusses how Larsson’s popularity has pushed other authors into the limelight such as Henning Mankell, Analdur Indriðason and Jo Nesbø.
With the terrible massacre that took place in Utøya Brian Oliver in the Observer wonders how Nordic crime writers will deal with the incident in their writing.
In a feature at NPR Norwegian author Anne Holt says politicians would do well to read crime fiction, a mirror on society. She is also interviewed at PBS.Org where she talks about the lessons of Oslo.
Writing in the Guardian author Jo Nesbø discusses the fact that the attacks in Oslo and Utøya have changed Norway forever and it will never again be the innocent, trusting place it once was.
Excellent blog post by Maxine over on her site Petrona about crime fiction from Norway! She has also posted an equally brilliant one about crime fiction from Sweden. Certainly worth reading by those who think that Stieg Larsson is the only author who writes Swedish crime.
Not sure how I managed to miss this but there is an excellent piece in the Guardian that came out around the same time of the Harrogate Crime Festival about Partners in Crime Fiction. Authors such as Lee Child, Benjamin Black and RJ Ellory choose their favourite characters by other crime writers.
Rohan Maitzen has over at the Los Angeles Review of Books written an excellent article on the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.
So are you interested in the top ten crime writers that you should be reading as a fan of the genre before you die? I am sure you would be. First versions of this list by John Connolly and Declan Hughes were presented at the Dalkey Book Festival back in June 2011, and at the world mystery convention, Bouchercon in San Francisco. It is reproduced on the Writing i.e blog. But do you agree with all their suggestions? As a matter of fact I do. Bearing in mind the books on the list one would find it rather difficult not to.
There is an excellent review in The Independent by Boyd Tonkin on South London author Alex Wheatle’s novel Brenton Brown that is particularly on topic in the light of the recent disturbances that have taken place in London.
Tony Thompson whose novel Outlaws: Inside the Violent World of Biker Gang is published by Hodder & Stoughton writes an interesting article in The London Evening Standard about growing up in Tottenham in the light of the recent riots. Makes for interesting and sobering reading. How times have changed!
There is a round up of in the Guardian of thrillers by John O’ Connell. His choices include Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross and Burned by Thomas Enger. There is also an interview in the Guardian with Neil Cross who explains why he does not get on with novelists.
Jake Kerridge of the Telegraph interviews Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine.
Absolutely cool interview in the Independent on Dennis Lehane by James Kidd. He talks about his life, writing and bankers!
On her brief trip to the UK the Daily Express managed to nab an interview with Megan Abbott.
According to USA Today (Books) Author Jamie Freveletti is to continue writing Robert Ludlum’s Covert One series. Her first novel Running From the Devil won the International Thriller Writers award for best first novel. The third novel in the Emma Caldridge series The Ninth Day is due to go on sale on 27 September 2011. Furthermore David Baldacci books may also be coming to television.
As part of its Crime in the City feature NPR talk to Michael Harvey co-creator of A&E's real-cop TV series, Cold Case Files. Harvey is also the author of 4 crime novels The Chicago Way, The Fifth Floor, Third Rail and We All Fall Down. His main protagnonist is Michael Kelly, a former Chicago cop.
In another feature they also talk to George Pelecanos about racially divided Washington DC. Pelecanos has a new book out The Cut which features a new protagonist Spero Lucas an Iraq veteran who is a special investigator for a criminal attorney. George Pelecanos also talks to CS Monitor.com about his new novel.
According to the Bookseller Polygon have bought a novel by Private Eye writer and cartoonist Bruce Fantoni. The book has been described as "an intoxicating blend of Raymond Chandler and Woody Allen", is about the world's oldest private eye, who is based in modern-day Miami. It will be published as a small format hardback in summer 2012.
The American Culture have an interesting article on Raymond Chandler by Curt Evans where he looks at Raymond Chandler and British Detective Fiction. Part one can be found here and part two here.
Interesting article at Salon.com about series that have been continued by other authors after the death of the original author.
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting profile on author James Sallis whose 2005 novel Drive is due to be released shortly in the cinema on September 16. His latest novel The Killer is Dying is also due to be published later on this year.
John Grisham has been awarded the inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for his work in The Confession. The new literary award is co-sponsored by The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. The judges included David Baldacci and Linda Fairstein.
According to the Bookseller Random House have produced an app to go along with the Wallender series. The app “In the Footsteps of Wallander", is available to download in English, Swedish and German through an iPhone or Android phone.
According to the British Film Institute’s magazine Sight and Sound Scorsese’s Shutter Island which is based on the best selling novel by Dennis Lehane is as much as it is being an excellent film as it is a testament to the cinema era of the 1940s and 1940s. There is a spoiler in the essay so you might want to give it a miss if you do not want it to spoil your enjoyment of the film.
Film News
According to Deadline News after a bidding war 20th C Fox have nabbed the rights to a series of books by renowned Swedish criminologist and novelist Leif G.W. Persson for Stephen Gaghan to develop as a TV series. The TV project will be based on the central character in Persson's books -- Evert Backstrom. The full article can be found here. Meanwhile Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series and Three Seconds, by Anders Roslund & Borge Hellstrom have been sold to Working Title and Shine/New Regency respectively.
For fans of the new Sherlock Holmes series Mark Gatiss talks about the second series over at DarkHorizons.com.
And more things Sherlock Holmes, director Guy Ritchie popped down to Empire Presents… Big Screen on 13 August and revealed some titbits about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows the sequel to Sherlock. A trailer can be seen below-
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is due out in the UK on 16 December 2011.
Fans of Spooks will be disappointed to hear that the BBC have cancelled the spy drama after a decade. The full reason can be found here in the Guardian article.
According to Empireonline.com John C McGinley who is best known for playing insult-flinging medical genius Perry Cox on Scrubs is joining the cast of I, Alex Cross.
According to The Australian a number of Hollywood’s leading ladies are scrambling to play the lead character in the film version of S J Watson’s overnight success of a novel Before I Go To Sleep. The full article can be found here.
I am sure that I am not the only one looking forward to the remake of Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy which is based on John le Carré's novel. A further trailer has been released and can be seen below –
Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy is due out on September 16 2011.
According to the Hollywood Reporter Millennium Films have bought the film rights to Noah Boyd’s debut novel The Bricklayer. Actor Gerald Butler is set to star as former FBI Agent turned bricklayer Steve Vail. He is called on by his ex-colleagues to help stop a criminal group that is demanding increasingly high series of ransom payments and finds himself working alongside a female deputy director of the FBI.
Variety News reveal that ABC have ordered a script from Lionsgate that could convert "The Lincoln Lawyer" feature film into a drama series.
Robin Collin of the Telegraph in his article does not sound to keen about the prequel of Morse that is due to be shown on ITV. The one-off drama is called Endeavour. A further article about the prequel can also be found here. The press release from ITV can be found here.
According to ABC Entertainment News John Cusack claims that Edgar Allan Poe was something of a rock star in his day. The actor is due to play Poe in the film The Raven that is due out next year. His comments were made at Comic-Con San Diego where the film was previewed for fans.
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