Tuesday 24 January 2012

Crime Fiction News

City University London are establishing a dedicated MA course in Crime Writing. City University London's Creative Writing MA programmes are already unique - because they demand that students complete a full-length novel in order to graduate... So crime thriller students will be taken through the whole process, from start to finished manuscript and then maybe publication. They have a good track record with their existing Novel Writing MA. Further information about the course can be found on the website.

They regularly invite leading novelists to visit the University for informal Q&A sessions. In the last few years, this has included Lionel Shriver, Doris Lessing, Mohsin Hamid, Hilary Mantel, and Jonathan Coe; and in Crime Writing: Val McDermid, Sophie Hannah, Frances Fyfield and Jake Arnott. The course is due to start on 24 September 2012. The duration is two years part-time. (One year full-time for international students.)

Alison Hennessey, in her first signing as Senior Crime Editor at Harvill Secker, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) for two books in the critically acclaimed, award-winning Intercrime series by Swedish crime writer Arne Dahl, in a deal with Tor Jonasson at the Salomonsson agency. The first book in the series, which follows an elite team of detectives assembled to investigate international violent crime, The Blinded Man, will be published in Vintage paperback in July 2012 and Harvill Secker will publish Bad Blood, which revolves around an American serial killer on the loose in Sweden, in summer 2013.
Alison Hennessey at Harvill Secker says: 'I am delighted to be bringing Arne Dahl's critically acclaimed Intercrime series to Harvill Secker as my first acquisition; with clever plotting and brilliant characterisation that will appeal to readers of Henning Mankell and fans of The Wire alike, it makes a really exciting addition to the Harvill Secker crime list.'
For further information, please contact: Bethan Jones, Head of Crime Fiction, Vintage Publishing Publicity. bjones@randomhouse.co.uk, 020 7840 8543

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers is pleased to announce nominees for their annual Hammett Prize for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author. The nominees are as follows:

Feast Day of Fools by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran ( Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (McClelland & Stewart/Canada; Knopf/US)

The Informant by Thomas Perry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/An Otto Penzler Book)

The Killer is Dying by James Sallis (Walker & Company)

The organization will name the Hammett Prize winner, during the Bloody Words Conference, in Toronto, June 1-3, 2012. The winner will receive a bronze trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger.

The South African newspaper The Daily Maverick have an interesting feature on South African crime thrillers and the “genre snob” debate. Referencing Roger Smith who is riding high with his novel Dust Devils the author of the article Leon De Kock raises the query as to why those appointed to adjudge each year’s best published work for the country's major prizes do not seem to want to acknowledge the existence of crime novels and their popularity. He also claims tnat Reading Roger Smith raises difficult questions for example how much of it is “genre” and how much is socio-politically isomorphic? The full article can be read here.

Crime fiction review round up’s can be found here from the Telegraph. Jake Kerridge also reviews seperately Gerald O’Donovan’s new book Dublin Dead which is the sequel to his debut novel Priest. Laura Wilson’s recent crime round up in the Guardian is here. One of the books reviewed is The Lewis Man by Peter May. Peter kindly wrote a blog post about his return to Stornoway during his book launch and it can be read here.

So CBS are apparently making their own version of an updated Sherlock! They may of course in my opinion want to reconsider this. I mean what was wrong with the BBC version that has been shown on PBS America? I am not sure, but the BBC do not appear to be pleased about this. Adam Sherwin in the Independent writes about the possibility of this happening. The BBC article can be found here.

Of late there has also been another mystery surrounding Arthur Conan Doyle and his story The Hound of the Baskervilles. Who and what inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles? According to a feature on the BBC website, the owner of a hotel in Clyro, near Hay-on-Wye, Powys, claims his 19th Century property was the inspiration for Scottish author Conan Doyle's fictional Baskerville Hall.

With the 84th Annual Oscar nominations released today, it is pleasing to see Gary Oldman nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The film has also been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. Rooney Mara for Best Actress in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has also been nominated for Best Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Best Film Editing. The film Drive has also been nominated for Best Sound Editing.


Last year Simon Spurrier’s excellent book A Serpent Uncoiled was published by Headline. It was a brilliant book. I did in fact review it for Shots and my review can be found here. We also managed to persuade Simon to tell us a bit about himself which resulted in his feature for Shots Would I lie To You? Now the paperback issue of A Serpent Uncoiled has been published and Simon has done a mini trailer to go with it and here it is. Have fun watching it! I certainly did.



1 comment:

Hester said...

I noticed you mentioned 'The Cats Table' by Michael Ondaatjes, well I can't wait to read his book after reading various reviews and getting to hear him talk on Elaine Charles's radio show 'The Book Report' on Sunday's or / bookreportradio.com.
Michael's books are atmospheric and evocative of place, it's a book about a young boys right of passage, the delightful mischief he gets up to with his friends on the ship and the interesting characters he gets to know aboard.
One of the phrases in Michael's book is 'Who realizes how contented ferrel children are", it made me think.
I can't wait to read this book of adventure and to see life through the eyes of a boy.