Criminal Splatterings!

According to the Guardian since the news broke about the fact that J K Rowling is actually Robert Galbraith there has been a lot of interest in her novel Cuckoo’s Calling from a number of Hollywood film studios.

If you have never read any of the Kyril Bonfiglioli’s Mordecai novels then you should before the film comes out.  According to the Guardian Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor are set to join Johnny Depp in the comic crime drama which is said to be based on Bonofiglioli’s final novel The Great Mortdecai Moustache Mystery which was completed by satirist Craig Brown

The adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl into a film is one of the most anticipated.  As can be expected any news about characters and who is set to play them is always going to be newsworthy.  According to the Guardian, Independent and the BBC it looks as if Rosamund Pike is set to play the main female protagonist Amy Dunne opposite Ben Affleck. Cinemabend.com also states that David Fincher has also added Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry to the list of actors due to star in the film.

Fans of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club will be happy to know that there is a sequel on the horizon. However, the sequel is to be a graphic novel according to the Guardian.

According to the Guardian, Penguin Australia have reissued 50 classic crime novels as a new Green Popular Penguins.  Some of the authors include Dornford Yates, Michael Innes, Julian Symonds, Edgar Wallace, Dashiell Hammett, Barbara Vine, Eric Ambler, Raymond Chandler, John Creasey, Charles Willeford, Edgar Allan Poe, Sapper, Margret Yorke,  HRF Keating, Chester Himes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to name a few.

Excellent article  in the Telegraph by Jake Kerridge about Raymond Chandler who celebrated what would have been his 125^th birthday on 23 July.

And in other things Raymond Chandler........

An introduction to Raymond Chandler

An interview between two of my favourite writers Ian Fleming and Raymond Chandler

According to Deadline.com, Mathew Klein’s novel No Way Back is set to be adapted into a psychological thriller with the title Restart.  Restart centers on an ordinary man who discovers that his entire life is being infiltrated and manipulated by a terrifying criminal network.  Restart is set to be directed by Brad Anderson who is best known for The Call and The Machinist.

David Hewson is to release the next book in his Italian mystery series initially as an audio book .  The Flood will according to Book2Book be available from Thursday 1 August 2013. Florence, 1986. A seemingly inexplicable attack on a church fresco of Adam and Eve brings together an unlikely couple: Julia Wellbeloved, an art student, and Pino Fratelli, a semi-retired detective who longs to be back in the field. Their investigation leads them to the secret society that underpins the city, and back to the darkness in Florence's past: the night of the great flood in 1966...

Information about this year’s CSI Portsmouth has been released. Taking part in CSI Portsmouth 2013 are crime authors S. J Bolton, Natasha Cooper, M.R. Hall, Kerry Wilkinson and Pauline Rowson who will also be acting as participating moderator at the one day event discussing crime fiction and fact at The Princess Royal Gallery at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.  More information can be found here.

Very good review of Sabine Durrant’s novel Under Your Skin in the Telegraph.

Congratulations go to both South African author Margie Orford and Head of Zeus.  According to the Bookseller, Head of Zeus have signed a five book deal with the South African crime author.

Fellow crime writer Doug Johnstone interviews Denise Mina in the Independent following her second prestigious Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year win last weekend.

The programme for the 20th Annual St Hilda's Crime and Mystery Conference has been revealed and can be seen here.  St Hilda's is always a brilliant event.  Very academic but also very laidback. I am looking forward to it very much especially since I not only missed Crimefest this year but also Harrogate. I shall be moderating the final panel of the day where we shall be discussing if there is a future for crime fiction. The panel members are Richard Reynolds from Heffers Bookshop, Agent Broo Doherty and Editor Ruth Tross from Mulholland Books UK.  Bound to be lots of fun!!!