Books To Look Forward to From Serpent's Tail

Detective Inspector Sean Duffy returns for the incendiary sequel to "The Cold Cold Ground".  Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime.  But a torso in a suitcase pretty close.  Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is.  A tattoo.  So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood - however faint - that always, always connects a body to its killer.  A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.  So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle.  And wherever he goes, he smells a rat...  I Hear The Sirens in the Street is by Adrian McKinty and is due to be published in January 2013.

Apocalypse Baby is by Virginie Despentes and is due to be published in June 2013.  This is a fearlessly feminist road trip novel, packed with atmosphere and romance.  Valentine, the troubled daughter of a well-off but dysfunctional Parisian family, vanishes on her way to school.  Inexperienced private detective Lucie Toledo is hired to find the missing teenager, and enlists the help of a formidable agent with a past, known to her friends as the Hyena.  Their quest, from Paris to Barcelona and back, uncovers a rich cast of characters whose paths have crossed Valentine's, leading to an alarming climax.  Part political thriller, part road-movie, part romance, the latest novel by subversive writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes won the Prix Renaudot 2010 for the pitiless gaze it directs at society in the age of the internet.

A young gang leader is found stabbed on a Hackney estate - but two people confess to the murder. Ndekwe, an ambitious, newly promoted Detective Sergeant within a subtly racist police force, believes the more obvious of the two confessions: from McKenzie, a teenager from the estate with a police record of juvenile crime. But why does Jack Shepherdson - an ex-merchant seaman in his sixties - come forward with his own confession? Is he covering for McKenzie, his colleague in the bar they worked at? Or is there more truth in his statement than Ndekwe at first believes?  Swear Down is by Russ Litten and is due to be published in April 2013

Capture is by Roger Smith and is due to be published in February 2013.  The truth won't set you free...In a city where the lines between rich and poor are drawn in blood, the truth is just the lie you believe the most..."Capture" tells the stories of three desperate people.  A father who is broken by grief and guilt.  A son still haunted by the ghosts of his past.  And a mother, desperate to save her child.  In Cape Town, these three are drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves them fighting for their sanity and their lives.

This driving, compulsive novel explores human greed and loyalty corrupted by temptation.  Margot is a grifter, making her living preying on the weaknesses of men.  She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.  Exploring what drives her quest to deceive and disarm, "The Face Thief" moves fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot's rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.  Rich in suspense and psychological depth, "The Face Thief" swirls around predator and prey, creating a landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well intentioned hapless, though all are constantly attempting to right their toppled lives.  The Face Thief is by Eli Gottlieb and is due to be published in April 2013.

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.