Tuesday 17 April 2007

Unable to attend this year’s London Book Festival, I managed to scrape news together from Ali Karim, who is still over the moon in “talking” to Dean Koontz over the Internet, after meeting Margaret Attwood along the way; surviving the Harrogate Crime Festival Launch and drinking with Mike Ripley! He’ll be sending in a full report with photos.

Julia Wisdom of HarperCollins has bought UK/Commonwealth rights to Victory Square, the final thriller in the Cold War cycle by Olen Steinhauer - the series covers the period from the close of World War Two to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The latest in the series, Istanbul Variations, scheduled for July in the UK, has been shortlisted for an Edgar Award.

SCEPTRE PUBLISHER CAROLE Welch has acquired the latest book by Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, which will be published in November. It tells the story of a pair of wandering adventurers - “swords-for-hire, con artists, unlikely soul-mates” - who get caught up in the schemes and battles that follow a bloody coup in the medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars. The novel is currently being serialised by the New York Times Magazine and will be published in the States by Del Rey, a Ballantine imprint.

In other news ….

The Pulitzer Board has just released the winners of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. In the Letters category, it was a big year for Knopf, whose authors took three of the five book awards. It's been an especially big year for Cormac McCarthy, whose The Road was just named an Oprah pick; the Pulitzer win will ensure even greater sales for the novel, just released on paper by Vintage.

Thanks to those who entered our last competitions. The winners were

David Morell Scavenger Competition

Sanjay Srinivas
Kathleen Anderson
Gaynor Coules
Peter Wilton
Catherine Desmond

Hell Drivers DVD Competition

Heidi Carter
Bengt Heurlin
Christy Hawkes

We are now running another DVD competition. This time around it’s a 5 disc box set of TV’s BIG BREADWINNER HOG + SPINDOE. Again, we have 3 Region 2 sets to give away in a simple competition:
Deadline is midnight Monday 23rd April 2007.

Crime Reports has been updated with reviews of
New Reviews 131/04/07
THE RABBIT FACTORY
Marshall Karp
ASK THE PARROT
Richard Stark
BROKEN SKIN
Stuart MacBride
DOWN INTO DARKNESS
David Lawrence
ABSOLUTION
Caro Ramsay
A FLORENTINE DEATH
Michele Giuttari
THE WATCHMAN
Robert Crais
THE BIG BAMBOO & FLORIDA ROADKILL
Tim Dorsey
COUNT TO TEN
Karen Rose
New Reviews 17/03/07
WITHOUT CONSENT
Kathryn Fox
THE SAVAGE ALTER
Asa Larsson
GUARDIANS OF THE KEY
Clio Gray
HEART OF BETRAYAL
Andrew Britton
CORN DOLLS
Patrick Lennon
A GENTLE AXE
R. N. Morris

June 2007
ABSOLUTION
Caro Ramsay
UNDER ORDERS
Dick Francis
A FLORENTINE DEATH
Michele Giuttari

May 2007
BROKEN SKIN
Stuart MacBride

No comments: