2016 Left Coast Crime “Lefty” Awards winners

Left Coast Crime 2016, “The Great Cactus Caper,” awarded four Lefty awards on Saturday 27 February 2016 at the 26th annual LCC convention, held this year in Phoenix. The full list of nominations can be found here.

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel (given since 1996)

Lord of the Wings by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel (Bruce Alexander Memorial, first given in 2004) for books covering events before 1960.

Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)

Lefty for Best LCC Regional Mystery Novel set in the LCC Geographic Region (Mountain Time Zone and all time zones westward to Hawaii)

The Accidental Alchemist by Gigi Pandian (Midnight Ink)

Lefty for Best World Mystery Novel (set outside LCC Geographic Region)

The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by fans of mystery literature for fans of mystery literature, including both readers and authors. Usually held in the western half of North America, LCC’s intent is to provide an event where mystery fans can gather in convivial surroundings to pursue their mutual interests.

First Monday - A Regular Night of Murder and Mayhem

Copyright Goldsboro Books

First Monday is a new monthly crime fiction/thriller night to be held in Central London, starting on April 4th. A mix between a social evening and a festival-style panel, First Mondays will offer the crime fiction community – whether readers, writers or industry professionals – a place to meet, enjoy each other’s company and hear about the latest and most interesting crime fiction around.

First Mondays will begin at 6.30pm on the first Monday of each month with a panel discussion chaired by, amongst others, Barry Forshaw (Brit Noir etc), Jake Kerridge (Daily Telegraph) and James Kidd (Independent). Upcoming authors include Elly Griffiths (April 4th), Christopher Fowler (May 9th), Peter James (June 6th), Sophie Hannah and Belinda Bauer, as well as a host of established and debut authors from all over the world. After the panels, the conversation will spill over to a local bar.

The intent of the night is to create a knowledgeable and substantial audience for a social event which is also an opportunity for publishers and authors to promote new crime fiction. 

The event is receiving practical support from The Crime Writers Association, City University’s Crime Thriller MA Programme, The International Thriller Writers and Goldsboro Books – and several publishers have committed to sponsoring evenings, beginning with Orenda Books (2016 IPG Nick Robinson Newcomer Award shortlisted publisher) in April.

There will be a small entry charge (£5), which will include a glass of wine compliments of Goldsboro Books, and 50% of the revenue for the evening will go to the participating authors and the chairperson. Books by the authors will be sold by Goldsboro and there will be an extensive social media campaign to promote the event, including via the Goldsboro, ITW, Crime Writers Association and Crime Readers Association mailing lists, as well as other means.

First Monday is the brainchild of David Headley and Harry Illingworth (Goldsboro books), Katherine Armstrong (Little, Brown) and William Ryan (author of The Holy Thief and lecturer on the City University Crime Thriller MA course). It will be held in the College Building of City University on St John Street (close to Angel Tube station).

April 4th: Elly Griffiths, Amanda Jennings, Mary Paulson-Ellis and Leye Adenle, chaired by Barry Forshaw.

May 9th: Christopher Fowler, William Shaw and Jack Grimwood, chaired by Jake Kerridge.

For more information and to book tickets: www/goldsborobooks.com/events

Follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/FirstMondayCrime/ or Twitter: @1stMondayCrime.

If you’re interested in supporting the evening or would like to suggest an author for a panel, please contact: firstmondaycrime@gmail.com

Criminal Snippets

Incredibly sad to hear via Martin Edwards blog Do You Write Under Your Own Name of the death of Stuart Pawson. I met Stuart a number of times at various CWA events and I can honestly say he was one of the nicest people to talk to.  He also wrote wonderful books.  He shall certainly be missed by a lot of us.  

Good news on the publicity front to some of our favourite PR people who have been promoted!  Congratulations go to Caitlin Raynor who has been made Deputy Communications Director at Headline. Frances Gough who has been promoted from Senior Press Officer to Publicity Manager.  More information can be found here.

Congratulations also go to Elizabeth Masters who has been made Deputy Publicity Director for Quercus.  Prior to her promotion she was PR Manager for Tinder Press at Headline.

Author James Patterson has launched a co-writing competition according to the Bookseller.  To enter the student must be enrolled in Patterson’s Masterclass and the winner will co-author a book with him.

Author C J Lyons is to have the first in a new series published by Canelo.  The book entitled Last Light will also see the re-issue of her Lucy Guardino FBI Thrillers.

Huge congratulations also go to Alex Marwood who has signed a contract for two more novels with Sphere. The Edgar and Macavity Award winning author’s latest book is the Darkest Secret.

The Bafta award-wining drama is set to return to the BBC with three new films.  The films are The Third Voice, The Lost Weekend and The Big Bang. Murder uses personal confessions to revisit the missing moments leading up to a death, in search of the truth.

The BBC have also recommissioned The Coroner and Father Brown.  The Coroner  will return in a new 10 part series that will begin shooting in South Devon later on this year whilst, Father Brown will continue for a fifth year.

According to Nordic Noir TV, BBC 4 have acquired “Modus” a new Nordic Noir crime drama. Based on the bestselling series of novels Vik/Stubø by Anne Holt, Modus is an adaptation of the fourth book Fear Not (Pengemannen’) which was written in 2009.  The UK air date is yet to be announced.
Coming to More4 on 3 March is Thicker Than Water at 10pm.  It is said to be a glorious Nordic noir with a difference, set in the enchanting Swedish archipelago. In Thicker Than Water a mother attempts to reunite her three adult children by forcing them to confront the dark family secrets that are buried in their past.  The trailer can be seen below.

The Guardian have a review of When I was Old by Georges Simenon which is a rare glimpse into his life.

Clare Clark also reviews ex-Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis gothic debut The Butcher’s Hook. Also in The Telegraph Janet Ellis talks about going from being a Blue Peter presenter to a debut novelist.

For those of you like me that are presently enjoying the adaptation of John Le Carré’s The Night Manager you might be interested in the Guardian quiz on how much do you know about John Le Carré.  

Also in The Telegraph Tom Hiddleston who can currently be seen in The Night Manager talks about why his character could be the next Bond.

According to the Bookseller Transworld Books have won the rights to Waterstones crime buyer Joe Knobbs debut series of crime novels.  The series, set in a "sprawling, twilight northern city”, will introduce readers to Aidan Waits, a disgraced young detective, who is caught stealing drugs from evidence and subsequently blackmailed into going undercover. When an MP’s daughter runs away from home, Waits is sent to track her down and finds himself "at the centre of a storm". Uncovering the motives of those involved, he’s thrown forwards - through politicians, police and drug lords - towards "a truth he doesn’t want to know".  Volume rights for three books were acquired.  The first book in the series Sirens is due to be published in Spring 2017.

Congratulations go to C J Box for winning the 2016 Western Heritage Award for Best Novel and also Robert J Randisi who has been awarded the 2016 John Seigenthaler Legend Award.  The award is given by Killer Nashville.

According to Deadline Bill Paxton is to star in a present day reimaging of the Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke film Training Day. Set 15 years after the film, Bill Paxton is set to play one of the bad cop roles in the CBS drama pilot.

It looks as if there is going to be another remake of The Thomas Crown Affair according to Deadline.  The classic 1968 original of course featured Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway whilst the first remake in 1999 featured Pierce Brosnan (of Bond fame) and Rene Russo.  This time around hot of his brilliant acting in Creed, Michael B Jordan is set to star.  Why they need a remake I don’t know.  The original in my opinion is still the best but the 1999 version is no slouch either.

Author of The Turning Tide, Brooke Magnanti talks about her new novel in the Independent and also about real and fictional forensics.  In The Telegraph the author also talks about her mother buying all her Secret Diary of a Call Girl books which were based on her blog written using the pseudonym Belle de Jour.
Fans of Daredevil will welcome the trailer for season two that has just been released.  The trailer which can be seen below shows The Punisher and Elecktra in action.

The second season of Daredevil can be seen on Netflix from 18^th March.

A new cast list has been confirmed for the drama DCI Banks which is based on the novels of Peter Robinson. The series is comprised of 6 x 60’ original episodes inspired by the books from acclaimed novelist Peter Robinson.

Crime Events at Huddersfield Literature Festival 2016 -

Saturday 12 March

Christopher Fowler In Conversation with Joanne Harris 1pm

Yorkshire Children’s Centre, Brian Jackson House, New North Parade HD1 5JP

 

The author of the Bryant & May series of detective novels talks to Joanne Harris about his work. Christopher Fowler is the multi-award-winning author of over 30 novels, 12 short story collections and the Bryant & May mystery novels, which record the adventures of two Golden Age detectives investigating impossible London crimes. He is also a journalist, playwright, writer for TV and radio, and the founder of an international film marketing company that created movie posters and trailers for films such as Reservoir Dogs, Trainspotting and Goldeneye. Here, he chats to bestselling local author Joanne Harris about the elements of a crime novel – from well-drawn characters to building suspense.

 

Saturday 12 March

Dark Imaginations – Rupert Thomson & Ian McGuire 2.30pm

Yorkshire Children’s Centre, Brian Jackson House, New North Parade HD1 5JP

 

How do authors decide what stories to write? Are there any subjects they wouldn’t tackle? How do novelists approach writing characters very different from themselves? Does choosing a dark subject matter or writing a different book each time make it harder to retain your readership? Two critically acclaimed novelists, Rupert Thomson & Ian McGuire, discuss their approach to writing and their latest novels.

 

Rupert Thomson has been compared to writers as various as Dickens, Kafka, Paul Auster, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Elmore Leonard, and the subjects and settings of his novels have ranged from a sculptor in 17th-century Florence (Secrecy) to a policeman guarding Myra Hindley’s body (Death of a Murderer). His 10th novel, Katherine Carlyle, is a profound and moving story about a young woman who sets off on an extraordinary journey in an attempt to deal with her mother’s death and her father’s neglect.

Ian McGuire is the founder of the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing. Set on a 19th-century Yorkshire whaling ship bound for the Arctic, his latest novel, The North Water, is a dark and gripping tale that pits an ex-army surgeon against a brutal and bloodthirsty harpooner.

 

Saturday 12 March

Location, Location, Location: The importance of setting in crime novels and thrillers 4pm - Frances Brody, Christopher Fowler and Tom Harper

Yorkshire Children’s Centre, Brian Jackson House, New North Parade HD1 5JP

 

There has been a death in the Yorkshire Dales. A murder on a London street. And deep in the Amazon, a group of explorers keeps getting smaller… In this fascinating panel discussion, three authors talk about the importance of setting in their work. Frances Brody is the author of a series of delightful period mysteries set in 1920s Yorkshire and featuring stylish amateur sleuth, Kate Shackleton, the latest of which is A Death in the Dales. Christopher Fowler is the author of the popular Bryant & May detective series set mostly in London between WWII and the present – contemporary crime fiction’s answer to Holmes & Watson. Tom Harper is a York-based writer who produces dazzling Indian Jones-style thrillers set in exotic locations. In his latest, Black River, a doctor looks for a lost city in the heart of the Amazonian forests.

 

 

More information and booking details can be found at:

www.litfest.org.uk

Tickets: 01484 430528

Crime Story: Portrait of a Criminal

Thursday 10 March, 7pm 

Live Theatre, Newcastle

Two award-wining writers explore the minds of two of the most notorious criminals in recent times.

Dan Davies spent more than a decade writing the highly-acclaimed biography, In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile, which won the Gordon Burn Prize 2015 and was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize 2015. The book is both an extraordinary portrait of Savile, compiled from years of interviews and dogged research, as well an enquiry into the society that enabled him for so long.

The event also launches Northern Writers’ Awards winner Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]. The book covers the last days of the fugitive gunman Raoul Moat, who shot three people before going on the run in rural Northumberland. The book is written in Moat’s own words, pieced together from letters and recordings, offering a compelling insight into his paranoid state. You Could Do Something Amazing has already been named by several critics as one of the books of the year.

Dan Davies and Andrew Hankinson, writers in the tradition of David Peace and Newcastle’s own Gordon Burn, will discuss the subjects of their work, their own methods and the place of true crime in literary writing. 

There will be a book signing after the event.

The evening will also unveil the full programme for this year’s Crime Story festival, which takes place on Saturday 11 June. Paula Hawkins (The Girl on the Train) will be headlining this year’s festival for crime writers and readers, which brings together forensic scientists, criminologists, police officers and lawyers to reveal and interrogate the facts behind crime fiction. 

Ticket holders for Crime Story: Portrait of a Criminal will receive £10/£8 off their Crime Story festival ticket price. Crime Story is presented by New Writing North and Northumbria University. 

Book now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/crime-story-portrait-of-a-criminal-tickets-20968654811