Books to look forward to from Corvus

Mozart’s Last Aria is by Matt Rees. It is 1791 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is enlightenment Vienna’s brightest star. Master of the city’s music halls and devoted member of the Austrian Freemason’s guild, he stands at the heart of an electric mix of art and music, philosophy and science, politics and intrigue. But, six weeks ago, the great composer told his wife he had been poisoned. yesterday, he died. The city is buzzing with rumours of infidelity, bankruptcy and murder. But Wolfgang’s sister Nannerl will not believe base gossip. Who but a madman would poison such genius? yet as she looks closely at the objects that her brother left behind, Nannerl finds traces of something sinister: a masonic secret that might just be connected to his death. And as she listens to Wolfgang’s bewitching last opera, The Magic Flute, she realizes that the arias might contain more than just the music. Mozart’s Last Aria will be published in May 2011.

July 1805. The armies of France have only to sail to England to complete Napoleon’s domination over Europe. Britain is militarily weak, politically divided, unsettled by her rioting poor. Into this feverish environment comes a dead man. Pulled half-drowned from a shipwreck, his past erased, Tom Roscarrock is put to work for the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey, a shadowy Government bureau. He is thrown into a bewildering world of political intrigue and violence. In France, a plan is underway to shatter the last of England’s stability. In England, the man who recruited Roscarrock has disappeared, his agents keep turning up dead, and reports of a secret French fleet are panicking the authorities. Roscarrock begins to realize that his mission is a deliberate device to reveal the British spy net- work in France... and his own opaque past is the key to the conspiracy. For Tom Roscarrock, the battle of the Empires is his chance for private vengeance. Will he prove nemesis or saviour? The Emperor’s Gold is by Robert Wilton and is due to be published in June 2011.

Iceland

1934: Two boys playing in the lava fields surrounding their isolated farmsteads see something they shouldn’t. The consequences will haunt them and their families for generations. Iceland 2009: The credit crunch bites. Currency is devalued, banks nationalized, savings annihilated, lives ruined. Grassroots revolution is in the air, as is the feeling that someone ought to pay... ought to pay the blood price. And in a country with a population of just 300,000 souls, in a country where everyone knows everybody, it isn’t hard to draw up a list of exactly who is responsible. And then,

one-by-one, to cross them off. Iceland 2010: As bankers and politicians start to die, at home and abroad, it is up to Magnus Jonson to unravel the web of conspirators before they strike again. But while Magnus investigates the crimes of the present, the crimes of the past are catching up with him. 66° North is by Michael Ridpath and is due to be published in May 2011.

The Killing Way by Anthony Hays is due to be published in April 2011. Welcome to fifth century Britain: the Romans have left, the Saxons have invaded, the towns are decaying and the countryside is dangerous. A young leader has forged a reputation as both a warrior and a diplomat and supreme power is within his grasp. But this is not the Arthur of legend: Camelot does not exist; chivalry is nonexistent; betrayal and treachery are endemic. And neither is this Arthur’s story. This tale belongs to its grim narrator, Malgwyn ap Cuneglas, a man whose broken life mirrors the broken Roman roads that divide the landscape. Once a feared warrior, he should have lost his life when he lost his swordhand on the battlefield. Arthur saved him, condemning Malgwyn to a half-life as a meagre scribe. But when a young woman is murdered and Arthur’s reputation is threatened, Malgwyn is tasked with solving the mystery and safeguarding the stability of Arthur’s newborn realm.

Resolution by the late Robert B Parker is the second instalment of a new series. The dust has yet to settle in the new frontier town of Resolution. It’s barely even a town: a general store, a handful of saloons and a run-down brothel for the workers at a nearby copper mine. No sheriff has been appointed, and gunslingers have taken control. Amid the chaos, itinerant lawman Everett Hitch has created a small haven of order at the Blackfoot Saloon.

Charged with protecting the girls who work the back room, Hitch has seen off passing cowboys and violent punters – though it’s his scheming boss, Amos Woolfson, who stirs up the most trouble. When a greedy mine owner threatens the local ranchers, Woolfson ends up at the centre of a makeshift war. Hitch knows only too well how to protect himself, but with the bloodshed mounting, he’s relieved when his friend Virgil Cole rides into town. In a place where justice and order don’t yet exist, Cole and Hitch must lay down the law – without violating their codes of honour, duty and friendship. Resolution is due to be published in March 2011.

Smart, tough Los Angeles FBI agents Jack Harper and Oscar Hidalgo breathe sighs of relief after violent diamond smuggler Karl Steinbach is finally arrested in a complex sting. Vowing vengeance on the agents who brought him down, Steinbach is imprisoned only to be offered a release with total immunity in a dodgy deal with Homeland Security. As Jack and Oscar's team of agents start to die, it becomes clear that Steinbach's is no idle threat. But when the pair investigate their slain comrade's lives, they discover that what looked like retribution is

actually tied to a web of deceit that stretches to the highest echelons of the FBI. Navigating car chases, shootouts, and even venomous reptiles, Jack and Oscar furiously pursue clues scattered throughout the underbelly of Los Angeles, in a desperate attempt to find the killer - before he finds them. Total Immunity is by Robert Ward and is due to be published in March 2011.

In Daddy’s Girl by Margie Orford It is Friday evening on deserted street below Table Mountain where a six-year-old ballerina waits alone for her mother to fetch her. Then an unmarked car approaches, and she is gone. With no trace of where, or why she's been abducted, suspicion falls on her divorced father, Captain Riedwaan. The boss of Cape Town's gang unit, Riedwaan is tough and ruthless, a man accustomed to being in control. But now he is powerless. Suspended from the squad for wasting police time, Riedwaan watches helplessly as the search for his daughter is called off. In desperation, Riedwaan turns to investigative journalist and police profiler Dr Clare Hart, whose brutal TV documentary about Cape Town's missing young girls has made her something of a local celebrity. Clare has seen how aspiring gangsters in the Cape Flats ghetto prove their worth by tormenting children. She knows that the odds of a victim's survival worsen with each passing minute. She understands that finding the child without police involvement will be difficult, dangerous, and probably illegal. But she also knows she'll do anything to help this heartbroken father - even if it puts all their lives at risk. Daddy’s Girl is due to be published in March 2011.

Glasgow, 1946: The last time Brodie came home he was a proud young man in a paratrooper’s uniform. Now, the war is over but victory’s wine has soured, and Brodie’s back to try and save

his childhood friend Hugh Donovan from the gallows. Donovan returned from war burned, mutilated, unrecognizable. It’s no surprise that he keeps his own company, venturing out only to score heroin. And it’s no surprise that when a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect. A mountain of evidence says he’s guilty. But Donovan denies it, and ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to help him. Working with advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls the mean streets of the Gorbals and confronts an unholy alliance of troublesome priests, corrupt coppers and Glasgow’s deadliest razor gang. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the murder tally of innocents starts to climb, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It’s them or him. The Hanging Shed is due to be published in March 2011 and is by Gordon Ferris.

Marc Lucas had it all, and lost it all. He is only slowly putting his life back together after the car crash that killed his pregnant wife, when things start to go strangely wrong for him. Nothing too sinister to begin with: his credit cards stop working. But then his key no longer fits his door, and he discovers someone else working in his office. Much worse is to come: he returns home to find himself face to face with his once-dead wife, and she doesn’t have a clue who he is. The next day, there is no trace of her. Could this have anything to do with the clinic? They wanted to test their ability to remove traumatic memories from live subjects. Marc had met them, just once, but declined their experimental technology. He now fears they may have begun their tests illicitly... Can he discover what is happening to him before the waking nightmare he finds himself living overwhelms his sanity? Splinter is a psychological novel by Sebastian Fitzek and s due to be published in April 2011.

Con men and killers, aliens and zombies, priests and soldiers - just some of the characters that kill and thrill in this compelling collection of gun-toting, double-crossing, back-stabbing, pulse

-pounding stories. Jeffrey Deaver investigates the suspicious death of a crime-writer in 'The Plot'; Karin Slaughter's grieving widow takes revenge on her dying ex-husband in 'Cold, Cold Heart'; Stephen Coonts discovers a flying saucer in the depths of the ocean in 'Savage Planet' and John Lescroat's secret field agent finds himself caught up in a complex game of cat-and-mouse in 'The Gate Conundrum'. Handpicked by world number one Lee Child, celebrity authors and stars of the future are brought together, writing brand-new stories, especially commissioned for this must-have collection. First Thrills is edited by Lee Child and is due to be published in February 2011.

End Game is by Matthew Glass and is due to be published in February 2011. July 5 2018, Masini, Uganda: 218 people are massacred when the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) attack a hospital. Amongst the dead are 32 American medical volunteers. September 12, UN Security Council: The US announces its plan to eradicate the LRA once and for all. But it will mean intervening in China’s African sphere of influence. The message from the Chinese is keep out. October 17, Wall Street: Stock prices tumble as a wave of uncertainty sweeps US markets. Washington will do what it takes to prop up America’s banks but their fear is that someone is deliberately undermining them. unrelated incidents, or the opening moves in a deadly confrontation between superpowers? With hardliners on both sides keen to provoke conflict, US ambassador Marion Ellman must defuse the situation before it is too late, but with American and Chinese carrier groups massing off the Horn of Africa, her time is running out.

The elite warriors of the Hereford-based SAS know all about pain and the enduring of it. Syd Spicer, ex-SAS trooper, has found himself back in the Regiment – this time as its chaplain, responsible for the spiritual welfare of the hardest men in or out of uniform. Faced with a case, which would normally be passed discreetly to diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins, Spicer is forced, for security reasons, to try and handle it himself and is coming close to a breakdown. Meanwhile, the scattered communities along the Welsh border face their own crisis. With recession biting deep, urban crime has spilled into the countryside and old barbaric evils are revived. When a wealthy landowner is hacked to death in his own farmyard, DI Frannie Bliss, the senior investigating officer, is caught in the backlash, his private life in danger of exposure. Merrily Watkins is going to have to venture into areas where neither priest nor woman is welcome, to unearth secrets linked to the pagan past. Secrets which she knows can never be disclosed. The Secrets of Pain is by Phil Rickman and is due to be published in February 2011.

Hollywood Hills is by Joseph Wambaugh and is due to be published in January 2011. For the streetwise cops of Hollywood Station, dealing with the panhandlers, prostitutes and costumed crackheads of the boulevard is all in a day's work. If they're lucky, surf-mad partners Flotsam and Jetsam can spend the morning calming the crazies and the afternoon policing the babes on the beach. But beyond the lights and the crowds on the Walk of Fame, the real Los Angeles simmers dangerously. And when things heat up, even veterans like Viv Daley will see

things that they'll wish they could forget. In the hills above town, it's a different world, where sports-car-studded driveways lead to sprawling villas stuffed with clothes and jewels. Up here, pickings are easy for the Bling Ring - a group of photogenic young addicts who knock off celebrity cribs to fund their next fix. Evenexperienced cop and wannabe filmstar Nate HollywoodA" Weiss has struck gold in the hills. Leona Bruger, wife of an Industry Mover and Shaker, has taken a fancy to him. Although he knows the Hollywood maxim - you don't pet the cougars, especially if they belong to the boss - Nate reckons that a leg-over might be just the leg-up he needs. What Weiss doesn't realise is that his new flame's crooked art-dealer is about to pull a forgery scam right under his nose. And when a pair of desperate junkies hit on a foolproof plan to pay their drug debts with a stolen painting, things get very complicated indeed.

Cassandra Brooks is a single mother-of-two, schoolteacher and water diviner. Deep in the woods as she dowses the land for a property developer, she is confronted by the body of a young girl, swinging from a tree, hanged. When she returns with the authorities, the body has vanished. Already regarded as an eccentric, her story is disbelieved- until a girl turns up in the woods, alive, mute and identical to the girl in Cassandra's vision. In the days that follow, Cassandra's visions become darker and more frequent as they begin to take on a tangible form. Forced to confront a past she has tried to forget, Cassandra finds herself locked in a game of cat-and-mouse with a real life killer who has haunted her for longer than she can remember. At once an ingeniously plotted mystery and a magical love story, The Diviner’s Tale is by Bradford Morrow and is due to be published in January 2011.

Books to look forward to from Orion

Dru Rayne and her uncle relocated to LA after Hurricane Katrina. Five years after the storm, their struggling restaurant faces a different danger. When Joe Pike witnessesDru's uncle beaten by a neighbourhood gang intent on extorting protection money, he offers his own brand of protection. But neither Dru nor her uncle want his help - and neither do the federal agents mysteriously watching their store. The Sentry is by Robert Crais and is due to be published in March 2011.

The Cut is by George Pelecanos and is due to be published in July 2011.

Since he got home from Iraq, Spero Lucas has carved out a good life for himself, enjoying his youth and his independence, and making a name as the kind of person who gets jobs done quietly and effectively, usually just on the right side of the law. A quick case for a criminal defense attorney leads him into the world of a high-profile marijuana dealer, currently in prison but

with a long reach, who wants to find out who's been stealing from his dealers. Soon Lucas uncovers a tangle of connections that lead dangerously close to some people in high places - and to Lucas's own family.

In Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag Marissa Fordham a reclusive artist is found brutally murdered. The body might not have been found for days but for a call to 911 saying 'Daddy hurt me'. Haley is found clinging onto life alongside the body of her mother. To protect the fragile witness, Anne Leone - child advocate - is called in. But discoveries reveal a truth more terrible than anyone could have imagined - one that will put Anne and Haley in inconceivable danger. Secrets to the Grave is due to be published in January 2011.

The Guardians by Andrew Pyper is due to be released in February 2011. When Trevor's childhood friend Ben commits suicide, he and the remainder of their friendship group return to the provincial Canadian town from which they have been running the last twenty years. As old memories emerge, they realise that they cannot escape what sent them away in the first place: a brutal murder that took place in the derelict house directly across from Ben's parental home;; the site of their worst fears. There's something - or someone - inside and they mustn't let it out.

In The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly in tough times crime is still one of the few things that still pays, but if defense attorney Mick Haller was expecting an uptick in business during the economic downturn, the reality is a different story. Even people needing legal representation to keep them out of jail are having to make cutbacks, it seems.

In fact, the most significant part of Mickey's business right now is not about keeping clients out of jail but about keeping a roof over their heads, as the foreclosure boom hits thousands of people who were granted unrealistic mortgages in the good times and now face being kicked to the curb by ruthless corporations.

Lisa Trammel had been a client of Mickey's for eight months - his very first foreclosure case, in fact - and although so far he'd managed to stop the bank from taking her house, the strain and sense of injustice are beginning to take their toll, and the bank had recently got a restraining order to prevent her protesting against their fraudulent practices.

But now the bank's CEO, Mitchell Bondurant, has been found in the bank's car park with a bullet in his brain, and Lisa is about to be indicted for murder. For Mickey, it's back to what he does best on the biggest stage of all, but if he thought defending Lisa Trammel was going to be a walk in the park, he'd be wrong. Not only is he about to le

arn some startling truths about his client, but also about himself, and by the time the verdict is in, Mickey's whole world will have been turned upside down. The Fifth Witness is due to be published in May 2011.

In Love You More by Lisa Gardner for homicide detective D D Warren, the scene is all too

typical: a wife, finally pushed too far, shoots and kills her abusive husband. But while t

he little suburban home yields a dead body, it seems that the young daughter has vanished. Soon a homicide becomes a high profile missing person case. While the team searches the city, D D finds that every answer leads to more questions and that time is running out. Love You More is due to be published in March 2011.

Flavia de Luce returns in her third adventure which takes her through the dark byways of the village of Bishop Lacey where a fortune-teller claims to have seen Flavia's dead mother. This opens old wounds as well as new possibilities for Flavia. But is the woman a faker, playing on the tragic results of her father's actions, or is there some truth there? When the village is rocked by another ghastly murder, how will a fascination with gypsy lore help Flavia to solve it. A Red Herring Without Mustard is by Alan Bradley and is due to be published in March 2011.

In Live Wire readers will learn more about Myron Bolitar than they ever have before. Myron's mysterious, estranged younger brother Brad has disappeared leaving Myron with his son - a teenage boy that Myron didn't even know existed. Live Wire is by Harlan Coben and is due to be published in March 2011.

Fighting Dirty by June Hampson is due to be published in March 2011. It it 1983 and Daisy Lane is battling to keep her son, Jamie under some sort of control.. When his older brother Eddie comes out of prison after a stretch for manslaughter, he finds that the criminal underworld is tougher with fewer allegiances than ever before, and decides to plan the most audacious heist Britain has seen in decades. Will Eddie manage to pull it off? Or will his brother be his undoing?

Steve Mosby's Black Flowers is not a story about a girl who disappears. It is a story of a little girl who comes back. As if from nowhere, she appears one day on a seaside promenade, with a black flower and a horrifying story about where she's been. But telling that story will start a chain reaction of dangerous lies and deadly secrets that will claim many more victims in the years to come. Black Flowers will be published in April 2011.

Gideon's Sword is the first book in a new series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. As a child Gideon Crew witnessed the brutal murder of

his father, a scientist wrongly framed by the US government. More than twenty years later, Gideon finally gets his revenge by bringing down the man who destroyed his father. But then a mysterious witness steps forward to offer Gideon the chance of a lifetime. Gideon's Sword is due to be published in April 2011.

Heavily pregnant DS Alex Morrow is called in to investigate the violent death of a wealthy Glasgow escort. Thomas Anderson learns that his tyrannical banker father has committed suicide. Yet he finds his mother and sister experiencing not grief, but relief. As Morrow unravels the connections between the two cases, she faces an uninspired police force and her greatest challenge yet, as her work and home lives collide with disastrous consequences. The End of the Wasp Season is by Denise Mina and is due to be published in May 2011.

Eric Van Lustbader returns with Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Dominion. Bourne's enemies are gathering force. Serverus Domna, a secret cabal, has one objective: to vanquish the last person capable of destroying their bid to destabilise the world economy - Jason Bourne. Their mission: to turn Bourne's most trusted friend into his most deadly enemy. Now Bourne finds himself in a world where friend and foe go hand-in-hand as he encounters murder and destruction on a journey from which there is no escape. The Bourne Dominion is due to be published in May 2011.

After caring for his mother in her last days , Alex plans to travel around the world and recapture some of his lost youth. Beginning his travels in Indonesia, the idea of finding himself sounds appealing but he soon finds himself in real trouble. Dark Horizon is by Dan Smith and is due to be published in May 2011. Dark Horizon transports you to the lush landscapes of Sumatra, and the twisted ideals and deadly secrets lying in wait.

In The Opposite of Mercy, when school friends Paul, Chris and Lara reunite, they find themselves out of their depth when they try to help Lara escape an arranged marriage agreed by her bother Pasha Durrani, a terrifying man involved in organised crime. Meanwhile, DS Andy Macall has been tracking Durrani for months. But when one of his team is murdered and there is a leak in the unit. Macall decides to hunt down Durrani alone. The Opposite of Mercy is by John Connor and is due to be published in June 2011

Bad Signs is the new book by R J Ellory and is due to be published in June 2011. Orphaned brothers Clarence and Elliott, have spent their lives waiting to escape the state institutions that have been their world since their mother was murdered. But freedom comes in a sinister form when they are kidnapped by the psychotic Earl Sheridan. Will they manage to elude the dark stars that have hung over them since their mother's death, or will the succumb to the pull of Earl's terrifying version of evil.

In Michael Marshal's The Breakers Bill Moore has it all: a high-income job, the perfect home and a loving wife. But then he is sent a business card - blank except for the one 'modified'. He dismisses the seemingly random event until the word begins to pop up in other places. Bill soon finds out, in the most terrifying way, that his life has become the subject of a sinister and deadly game. The Breakers is due to be published in July 2011.

The Thrilling Edgar Nominations - 2011

Shots Ezine are delighted to announce that David Morrell and Hank Wagner’s
ITW 100 Thrillers has been nominated for an MWA Edgar Award in the best critical / Biographical Category.

Photo above [pictures some of the contributors to this insightful volume that details the genres’ biggest work].

In a famous essay, Henry James once wrote, "The house of fiction has many windows." The same applies to thrillers. There are many types: the legal thriller, the spy thriller, the action-adventure thriller, the medical thriller, etc. One of their common denominators is that they quicken the reader's heartbeat. Read More

Morrell’s comment that Thriller’s quicken the heartbeat is the common thread that makes Thriller Novels so exhilarating, and one of the few areas of publishing thriving despite the global downturn. Morrell’s essay listed some of the greatest works in the genre, and that essay sowed the seeds of Oceanview Publishing’s Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner.

Best Critical/Biographical

The Wire: Truth Be Told, by Rafael Alvarez (Grove Press)

Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making, by John Curran (HarperCollins)

Sherlock Holmes for Dummies, by Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder (Wiley)

Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and his Rendezvous with American History, by Yunte Huang (Norton)

Thrillers: 100 Must Reads, edited by David Morrell and Hank Wagner (Oceanview Publishing)

Shots also pass our very best regards to all the other nominated writers and publishers, in the MWA’s celebration of the best of the best.

Best Novel
Caught, by Harlan Coben (Dutton)

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin (Morrow)

Faithful Place, by Tana French (Viking)

The Queen of Patpong, by Timothy Hallinan (Morrow)

The Lock Artist, by Steve Hamilton (Minotaur)

I’d Know You Anywhere, by Laura Lippman (Morrow)

Best First Novel by an American Author

Rogue Island, by Bruce DeSilva (Forge)

The Poacher’s Son, by Paul Doiron (Minotaur)

The Serialist, by David Gordon (Simon & Schuster)

Galveston, by Nic Pizzolatto (Scribner)

Snow Angels, by James Thompson (Putnam)

Best Paperback Original

Long Time Coming, by Robert Goddard (Bantam)

The News Where You Are, by Catherine O’Flynn (Henry Holt)

Expiration Date, by Duane Swierczynski (Minotaur)

Vienna Secrets, by Frank Tallis (Random House)

Ten Little Herrings, by L.C. Tyler (Felony & Mayhem Press)

Best Fact Crime

Scoreboard, Baby: A Story of College Football, Crime, and Complicity, by Ken Armstrong and Nick Perry (University of Nebraska Press-Bison)

The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South, by Alex Heard (HarperCollins)

Finding Chandra: A True Washington Murder Mystery, by Scott Higham and Sari Horwitz (Scribner)

Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin, by Hampton Sides (Doubleday)

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science, by Douglas Starr (Knopf)

Best Short Story

“The Scent of Lilacs,” by Doug Allyn (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September/October 2010)

“The Plot,” by Jeffery Deaver (from First Thrills, edited by Lee Child; Forge)

“A Good Safe Place,” by Judith Green (from Thin Ice, edited by Mark Ammons, Kat Fast, Barbara Ross, and Leslie Wheeler; Level Best Books)

“Monsieur Alice Is Absent, by Stephen Ross (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, October 2010)

“The Creative Writing Murders,” by Edmund White (from Dark End of the Street, edited by Jonathan Santlofer and S.J. Rozan; Bloomsbury)

Best Juvenile

Zora and Me, by Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon (Candlewick Press)

The Buddy Files: The Case of the Lost Boy, by Dori Hillestad Butler (Albert Whitman & Co.)

The Haunting of Charles Dickens, by Lewis Buzbee (Feiwel & Friends)

Griff Carver: Hallway Patrol, by Jim Krieg (Razorbill)

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman, by Ben H. Winters (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

Best Young Adult: The River, by Mary Jane Beaufrand (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)Please Ignore Vera Dietz, by A.S. King (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

7 Souls, by Barnabas Miller and Jordan Orlando (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

The Interrogation of Gabriel James, by Charlie Price (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers)

Dust City, by Robert Paul Weston (Razorbill)

Best Play

The Psychic, by Sam Bobrick (Falcon Theatre, Burbank, California)

The Tangled Skirt, by Steve Braunstein (New Jersey Repertory Co.)

The Fall of the House, by Robert Ford (Alabama Shakespeare Festival)

Best Television Episode Teleplay

“Episode 1,” Luther, teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

“Episode 4,” Luther, teleplay by Neil Cross (BBC America)

“Full Measure,” Breaking Bad, teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)

“No Mas,” Breaking Bad, teleplay by Vince Gilligan (AMC/Sony)

“The Next One’s Gonna Go In Your Throat,” Damages, teleplay by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman (FX Networks)

The Simon & Schuster-Mary Higgins Clark Award

presented at MWA’s Agents & Editors Party on Wednesday, April 27, 2010

Wild Penance, by Sandi Ault (Berkley Prime Crime)

Blood Harvest, by S.J. Bolton (Minotaur) Down River, by Karen Harper (Mira)

The Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Live to Tell, by Wendy Corsi Staub (Avon)

Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

“Skyler Hobbs and the Rabbit Man,” by Evan Lewis (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, February 2010)

MWA Grand Master : Sara Paretsky

Raven Awards

Centuries & Sleuths (owned by Augie Alesky) in Chicago, and Once Upon a Crime (owned by Pat Frovarp and Gary Schulze) in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Winners will be announced during the 65th MWA Edgar Awards Banquet, which is to be held on April 28 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City, USA

Writing Wrongs with the Faber Academy

A Hands-on Guide to Writing Contemporary Crime with tutor RJ Ellory & special guest Val McDermid

From the American Noir of Raymond Chandler to the dreaming spires of Colin Dexter, all crime fiction shares some common characteristics: this intensive course is designed to strip away the mysteries attendant to the genre, and identify the real reasons why good crime fiction works.Through class discussion, exercises and individual workshop sessions, this course will explore numerous specific topics, from your goals as a writer to the style in which you write, from ‘quality versus quantity’ to learning how to self-edit, from inspiration, ideas, research, right up to overcoming ‘writers’ block’.

So, if you haven’t written before or are about to embark upon your first crime novel and want to know where to begin, or you have half a dozen completed works and need advice on how best to secure an agent, then this course is for you.

£425 inc. VAT and daily artisan lunch

1st April 2011 – 3rd April 2011 at Bloomsbury House, WC1B 3DA

For more information or to book please call Ian Ellard

Tel +44207 927 3827 or Email iane@faber.co.uk

More Information : http://www.faberacademy.co.uk/

Books to look forward to from Headline

In Satori it is the autumn of 1951 and the Korean War is raging. Twenty six year old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement at the hands of the Americans. Hel is master of 'hoda kaorosu' or 'naked kill', fluent in over six languages, and has honed extraordinary 'proximity sense' - an extra awareness of the presence of danger. He has the skills to be the world's most formidable assassin and now the CIA needs him. The Americans offer Hel freedom in exchange for one small service: go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's Commissioner to China. It's almost certainly a suicide mission, but Hel accepts. Now, he must survive chaos, violence, suspicion, and betrayal while trying to achieve his ultimate goal of Satori - the possibility of true understanding and harmony with the world. Satori is by Don Winslow and is due to be published in April 2011

Alex Cahill and Logan Finch return in Blindside GJ Moffat's Glasgow-set crime series. When a passenger jet crashes in Denver, Colorado, nobody survives. In Glasgow, Alex Cahill is surprised to receive a phone call from the wife of an old Secret Service colleague who was supposedly travelling on the doomed plane. But there is no record of his name on the passenger list. Cahill uses his connections to find out what has happened but no one is talking. Not even to him. Enlisting the help of his lawyer and friend, Logan Finch, Cahill is determined to get some answers. Logan's girlfriend, DCI Rebecca Irvine, is also looking for answers. A new drug is killing users but is it accidental death or could it be homicide? As Rebecca searches the streets of Glasgow, and Cahill and Logan head to Denver, they are unaware that a perfect storm of events across the globe is about to engulf them all. Blindside is due to be published in April 2011.

Edinburgh's toughest cop, Bob Skinner, looks into his past to assuage his demons in Grievous Angel. Skinner revisits his nightmares: old but not forgotten. Fifteen years in the past, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Bob Skinner is called to investigate a most brutal death. A man lies at the deep end of an empty swimming pool, his neck broken and almost every other bone in his body shattered. Soon, an organised crime connection looms, and bloody retribution spreads to a second city. Then violence erupts on a new front, as a vicious knifeman seems to be targeting Edinburgh's gay population. As if this double dose of homicide isn't enough for a single man with a teenage daughter to raise and protect, Skinner's personal life takes a similar, perilous twist. Can he stay on the side of the angels, or will he fall ...? Grievous Angel is due to be published in June 2011 and is by Quintin Jardine.

Steve Jones, our Cityboy hero, wants out. He's looking to cash-in before the soul-stripping toil of coining it in London's financial heartland turns into a life sentence. All it will take is a handsome seven figure wedge in the bank and it's the good life for him and goodbye to the horrors of the Square Mile. Like the expert chancer he is, he sees an opportunity. Hacking into his boss's computer, he finds something that chills him to the bone. This is big time; there are bad men involved; there are millions at stake. So no change there then. But when he stumbles upon a murder and becomes the prime suspect, he has to go on the run. Together with his partner Gemma, he improvises ingenious ways of outwitting the authorities, a vicious drug cartel and even M15 in a chase that will send him half way round the world if he's going to stay alive. Just Business is by Geraint Anderson and is due to be published in June 2011.

Dan, an Irishman who's ended up in New Jersey, finds himself embroiled in a world of murder, kidnapping and corrupt cops. Dan works as a bouncer in a seedy club, half in love with hostess Connie. When Connie is murdered on the premises, a vengeful Dan finds himself embroiled in an increasingly deadly sequence of events in which his doctor friend Zeb goes mysteriously missing, a cop-killing female cop becomes his only ally, and he makes an enemy of ruthless drug-dealer Mike Madden. Plugged is the debut crime novel by Eoin Colfer and is due to be published in May 2011.

In 88 Killer Tom Harper and Denise Levene return in this new thriller from Oliver Stark. In a brand new case, full of twists and turns, Harper and Levene hunt a serial killer on the streets of New York. When the body of a young white male is discovered in a Harlem alleyway, NYPD detective, Tom Harper, is not convinced this is a straightforward homicide case. Determined to discover the truth, Harper investigates a spate of similar murders across the city with the help of police psychologist, Denise Levene. But Denise is battling her own demons, as Tom knows all too well. The realisation that a serial killer could be on the prowl seems like frighteningly familiar territory to Tom and Denise. But hatred and fear take on many forms and Tom has never come across a case quite like this. 88 Killer is due to be published in April 2011.

Cumbria, 1783. A broken heritage; a secret history. The tomb of the first Earl of Greta should have lain undisturbed on its island of bones for three hundred years. When idle curiosity opens the stone lid, however, inside is one body too many. Gabriel Crowther's family bought the Gretas' land long ago, and has suffered its own bloody history. His brother was hanged for murdering their father, the Baron of Keswick, and Crowther has chosen comfortable seclusion and anonymity over estate and title for thirty years. But the call of the mystery brings him home at last. Travelling with forthright Mrs Harriet Westerman, who is escaping her own tragedy, Crowther finds a little town caught between new horrors and old, where ancient ways challenge modern justice. And against the wild and beautiful backdrop of fells and water, Crowther discovers that his past will not stay buried. Island of Bones is by Imogen Robertson and is due to be published in April 2011.

Spiral is the first bio-tech thriller from Cornell professor, Paul McEuen. Pacific Ocean 1946: Liam Connor of the British Army, a global expert on germ warfare, is sent to help the US Navy foil an attempt by a Japanese submarine to unleash the world's first biological super-weapon. Code-name: Uzumaki. Translation: Spiral. The devastating decision is made to annihilate Spiral by releasing the world's fourth atomic bomb, obliterating the weapon before it can release its catastrophic payload. New York, present day: Connor, now a world-renowned Nobel prize-winner working on the cutting edge of nano-science technology, prayed that the spectre of Spiral would never return. But now it is back and the stakes are exponentially higher. Spiral would be virtually unstoppable with current technological advances and only Connor holds the key to its cure. Those who seek Spiral will stop at nothing to obtain Connor's knowledge, even if it means his death and that of everyone he holds dear. As the race begins for Spiral, will the world survive the Doomsday scenario about to unfold? Spiral is due to be published in March 2011.

Rose has it all - the gorgeous children, the husband, the beautiful home. But then her best friend Polly comes to stay. Very soon, Rose's cosy world starts to fall apart at the seams - her baby falls dangerously ill, her husband is distracted - is Polly behind it all? It appears that once you invite Polly into your home, it's very difficult to get her out again. Cuckoo is the debut novel by Julia Crouch and is due to be published in March 2011

In The Loner Xavier (Xavi) Aislado is a gentle giant, half Spanish, half Scot, brought up in Edinburgh by his grandmother, Paloma Puig, a ferocious old lady whose grim brand of care sees him into his teens, until his father moves back to Spain, leaving him to grow up fast. His emergence into manhood is colourful, and eventful. After a short career as a professional footballer, he turns to journalism, and has a bloody introduction to the trade, as his first assignment ends in violent death. Inevitably, remorselessly, as his autobiography unfolds, Xavi's life and his love become entwined with his work, and he is immersed in tragedy, loss and betrayal, going halfway round the world in search of a truth that may destroy him. The Loner is by Quintin Jardine and is due to be published in March 2011.

The Beverley Fauborg hotel is about to close for good. Psychologist Alex Delaware and his girlfriend Robin are making a farewell visit to the hotel bar when one patron in particular grabs their attention -- a beautiful but aloof young woman dressed all in white. Two days later, Alex is called in on a murder case and is shocked when he recognises the victim as the woman in white. Discovering her true identity is not going to be easy though and, Milo's investigation into the girl nicknamed 'Mystery' leads him to the darkest of secrets in the highest of places. Mystery is by Jonathan Kellerman and is due for publication in March 2011.

The Secret Soldier is the brand new John Wells thriller by Alex Berenson. Those in power always need an unofficial option. Meet John Wells. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah fears he is fast losing control of his family and his people. A series of terrorist attacks has put his kingdom on edge and, with powerful factions turning against him, the king must turn to the one man he has been told will make the difference. Ex-CIA operative John Wells knows all too well how covert internal battles can undermine a nation. With the stability of a powerful Middle Eastern country at stake, he goes undercover to investigate King Abdullah's claims. But as Wells begins to unravel the conspiracy, it takes an unexpected twist. The plotters want more than the fall of a monarch. Their objective is to spark the final bloody conflagration between Islam and the West. Has time finally run out for John Wells? The Secret Soldier is due to be published in March 2011

Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase are back for their seventh blockbusting adventure by the bestselling author of The Hunt For Atlantis, Andy McDermott. When archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, ex-SAS soldier Eddie Chase, are given the chance to work on an Interpol investigation into smuggled artefacts, they are stunned to realise that the artefacts hold clues to the location of a lost Inca settlement hidden somewhere in South America. As Nina and Eddie dig deeper, it soon becomes clear that finding the settlement may only be the start of their incredible quest. One which, astonishingly, may lead them to one of the greatest legends of all time: El Dorado -- the mythical city of gold. Nina and Eddie are desperate to locate the fabled city. But they are not alone in their search. Deep in the jungles of Venezuela, they face corrupt soldiers, murderous revolutionaries and ruthless drug lords who will stop at nothing to obtain the city's treasures. With so much at stake, what price will they pay for the greatest of fortunes. Empire of Gold is due to be published in February 2011.

When someone is out for revenge is there any way to stop them? When a mutilated body is found in a Baltimore park, forensic Pathologist Dr Lucy Trask and DEtective Michael Fitzpatrick uncover a story of guilt, anger and retribution more terrifying then they ever imagined. You Belong to Me is by Karen Rose and is due to be published in January 2011.

A Noble Killing is the latest book from the CWA Silver Dagger author Barbara Nadel. In Turkey the police are called to the scene of what seems to be the honour killing of a young girl. Burnt alive, she is not the first girl to suffer such an horrific death in Istanbul. Further investigations by Inspectors Cetin Ikmen and Mehmet Suleyman reveal that the girl had a secret boyfriend who has now disappeared. A Nobel Killing is due to be published in January 2011.

Newsy Stuff!

The BBC are indulging us viewers with more foreign crime fiction. In this case it is Danish crime fiction in the shape of The Killing a twenty-part series which takes place over 20 hours. The first two episodes are due to be shown on Saturday 22 January between 9:00pm and 10:50 pm on BBC 4. More information can be found on the BBC website.

The estate of the late Arthur Conan Doyle has authorised an official new Sherlock Holmes story. The novel is due to be published in September and is to be written by author Anthony Horowitz who is best known for his Alex Rider novels and as a director. The full article in the Guardian can be found here.

According to the Bookseller Jonathan Cape has acquired a literary thriller set in an Oxford College. The novel The novel Every Contact Leaves a Trace is by Elanor Dymott and is narrated by Alex, a young London lawyer trying to piece together the mystery surrounding his wife's brutal murder in the grounds of Worcester College, Oxford.

Not strictly crime fiction related but related to the law is the Justice series due to be shown on BBC 4. The episode that may be of interest is “The Highest Court in the Land” where four of the Justices of the Supreme Court talk frankly and openly about the nature of justice and what it means to them. More information can be found on the BBC website.

The saga of Stieg Larsson still continues. According to the Guardian Eva Gabrielsson the late author’s partner is planning on finishing the last millennium novel. The full article can be found here.

According to Book Trade author Pauline Rowson has teamed up with libraries across the south coast to launch the search for the South's best young crime writers in a national competition organised by the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) and sponsored by Crimefest, Britain's international crime fiction convention. More information can be found on Pauline Rowson’s website and the full press release can be found here.

Hodder Editor Sue Fletcher has bought the rights to a debut thriller set in Tokyo by Journalist Su Quinn. More info can be found here.

According to January Magazine talks are in progress over a TV detective series set in bath during Jane Austen’s time. The series which will be 8 one hour episodes have already been written and are due to be filmed next year in Bath. The series will revolve around ex-Bow Street Runner Jack Swann, who moves from London to Bath and will each week confront the city’s villains. Read here for more information. (Thanks to Janet Rudolph at Mystery Fanfare for the above information)