Criminal Splatterings

The 37th Deutscher Krimipreis (German Crime Prize) has been announced. The national winner was Zoë Beck with Paradise City. The international winner was Denise Mina with her novel Götter Und Tiere (Gods and Animals).  The whole list complete list of winners and second and third places can be found here.

Not sure how I missed this bit of award news regarding the Staunch Prize. The winner of the 2020 prize for fiction is Attica Locke with her novel Heaven, My Home.  Heaven is my Home is the second book in her Highway 59 Series.  More information can be found here.

When thinking of the Ipcress File Sir Michael Caine usually comes to mind as he played the iconic character Harry Palmer.  ITV have commissioned a six-part series of the classic Len Deighton novel.  Joe Cole from Gangs of London and Peaky Blinders, Lucy Boynton from Bohemian Rhapsody and Murder on the Orient Express and Tom Hollander who stared in The Night Manager and Birdbox are all due to take part with Joe Cole playing Harry Palmer. The Ipcress File will be filmed on location in Liverpool and Croatia during 2021.   More information can be found here.

Not strictly speaking crime fiction but great to hear that there will be a third season of His Dark Materials which is based on the novels by Phillip Pullman of the same name.  More information can be found here.

Look out for Traces a suspense filled crime thriller that is based on an original idea by crime writer Val McDermid.  Traces is set in the world of forensic science in Dundee, Scotland.  The first episode of the six-part series is due to be shown on Monday 4 January at 9:00pm on BBC 1.  More information can be found here.

True crime enthusiasts will welcome the new 15-part series programme Moment of Proof that is due to start on BBC 1 on Monday 4 January 2021 at 11:45am.  The series will be told through interviews, reconstructions and evidence from the cases, the officers behind major historic criminal inquiries give us access to the crimes they solved through the leads they followed.  More information can be found here.

Over on BBC Radio 3 look out for Peking Noir (drama on 3) where historian Paul French presents a true crime docudrama about the secrets of a Russian refugee, Shura, who ran the 1930’s Peking underworld.  More information can be found here.  The transmission date and time to be confirmed.

Radio 4 Extra are due to transmit A Fatal Inversion by Ruth Rendell.  It is a tale of murder set in the hot summer of 19576.  More information can be found here.  It is due to be transmitted on Saturday 9 January 2021 at 06:00am.

To celebrate the 100th birthday of Patricia Highsmith BBC Radio 4 Extra will be transmitting The Cry of The Owl on Tuesday 19 January at 06:30am.  The first of a four-part episode.  More information can be found here.

From Walter Presents comes a stylish Norwegian thriller that follows a police case spinning out of control. Monsters a seven-part series due to be shown on Channel 4 from 1 January. More information can be found here.

100 years of Agatha Christie – An interesting article by freelance journalist Nandhu Sundaram about the work of Agatha Christie and their timeless appeal.  The article can be read here.

If you missed it, there is a brilliant article in the Guardian on Will Dean and writing his new book Last Thing to Burn.  It can be read here.

Peter Swanson has also written an article in the Guardian about his top ten Christmas stories.  The article can be read here.

In the “i” there is an interview with Tana French who talks about the characters in her work.  The interview can be read here.

Also in the “i” an article about Becky Cooper’s debut novel We Keep The Dead Close, which is based on the mysterious death of a Harvard graduate student.  The article can be read here.

 Over on Dead Good Books they have not only listed debut novels to look out for in 2021 that can be found here but also 20 crime TV shows not to be missed in 2021 that can be found here. Amongst the TV crime shows that will be coming to the small screen are Grace which are based on the Roy Grace novels by Peter James, series 11 of Vera, Sweetpea based on the novel by C J Skuse and Val McDermid’s Karen Pirie series!

For those of you that like your history of crime fiction will be pleased to know that Netflix will be showing Lupin which is inspired by the adventures of Arsène Lupin the French gentleman thief.  The information can be found here.  It starts on 8 January and the trailer can be seen below.