Criminal Splatterings

According to Charlotte Williams at The Bookseller Vintage has acquired the licence to publish Ian Fleming's James Bond titles across all formats including digital, reversing the decision made by Ian Fleming Publications 15 months ago to publish the e-books direct. For the first time for an author's backlist, Vintage will publish in both its Classic and standard paperback ranges.  The full article can be found here.  The Reuters article about it can also be found here.

The debut novel of British screenwriter and creative writing lecturer Jenny Mayhew has been acquired by Hutchinson. The Wolf Man of Hindelheim is described as both a mystery and a love story.  The story is set in a German village between the wars.  When a baby girl goes missing from the home of the village doctor local police constable Theodore Hildebrandt arrives to investigate the mystery.  The Wolf Man of Hindelheim is due to be published in March 2013.

More news on the rights front! Harper Collins have scooped in a three book crime thriller deal the debut novel of former Metropolitan Police Officer Luke Delaney. The first novel, Senseless, which features DI Sean Corrigan on the case of an unusually vicious murderer, will be published by Harper Collins in early 2013.

Lloyd Shepherd whose debut novel The English Monster was published recently has had an interesting discussion lately with the discussion board Mobilism when he found a request for his novel to be pirated being circulated on the board.  He decided to respond in an effort to try and understand why.  It resulted in an article for the Guardian as he describes his parley with eBook pirates.

So is Jo Nesbø the new Stieg Larsson?  This was a question that he was asked recently at the New Zealand International Arts Festival. And his response? Characteristically it was one that those of us that have heard him talk before would have expected from him. So what exactly did he say?  Apparently with the wryness that we have come to expect from him his response was "It could have been worse - I could have been the new Dan Brown.".  Barry Forshaw’s article in the Independent on his new book The Phantom can be found here.  The film of his book the Snowman is due to filmed shortly by Martin Scorsese.  

The Telegraph have got a list of 100 novels everyone should read. As can be expected there are not a large number of crime novels. Only thirteen by my calculations.  I have to say that aside from that minor quibble, I was pleased to see a number of my favourite non-crime books on the list.  The first and foremost being Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Beloved by Toni Morrison and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen to name a few.
 
The nominees for the 2011 Strand Critics Awards have been announced by The Strand Magazine for books published during 2011. Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction, the nominees have been judged by, and winners selected from, book reviewers from the nation's top daily newspapers as well as Andrew F. Gulli, Managing Editor of the magazine and announced on July 11th, 2012 in New York City.
 
The nominees are –

Best First Novel:
The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Sister by Rosamund Lupton (Crown)
Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson (Harper)
The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis (Soho)
The Poison Tree by Erin Kelly (Pamela Dorman Books)

Best Novel
The Affair by Lee Child (Delacorte Press)
The Drop by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)
Buried Secrets by Joseph Finder (St Martin’s Press)
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James (Knopf)
The Cut by George Pelecanos (Reagan Arthur Books)
This is the fourth time that Michael Connelly has been nominated but the first time for the others in the Best Novel category.
 
Lifetime Achievement awards are being given to Joseph Wambaugh and John Sandford.
The awards will be presented at an invitation-only cocktail party, hosted by The Strand on July 11, 2012, in New York City.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros have optioned the film rights for William Landay’s novel Defending Jacob. It is a shame they have not realized that Defending Jacob is not his debut novel but in fact his third.  His first, Mission Flats, won in 2003 the prestigious CWA New Blood Dagger Award.
 
Bloody Scotland which is due to take place between 14^th and 16^th September 2012 have announced a crime fiction short story competition for budding writers. Glengoyne Highland Single Malt is sponsoring a short story writing competition as part of Bloody Scotland. With the aim of discovering the next big name in crime fiction, the competition gives you the opportunity to be published in an ebook anthology of short crime stories entitled Worth The Wait. Entries may be submitted now through June 29th, 2012. Stories must be original (not previously published), in English, and may not exceed 3000 words. Entrants must be 18 years of age or older and there are no restrictions on country of residence (though an entry fee of £10 or the local equivalent is required). See the competition page on the festival website for all the details.

ITV have commissioned a new series of Morse prequel Endeavour.  There will be 4x 120 minute episodes.  According to the press release from ITV it follows the well-received response to the recent one-off Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.  Once again Morse author Colin Dexter will act as consultant.  Filming will take place in Oxford later on this year.
 
Fans of Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series will be pleased to hear that according to Deadline.com Entertainment One and Piller/Segan/Shepherd, partners on the Syfy series Haven, are re-teaming for another drama series project. The two companies have acquired the TV rights to best-selling author Karin Slaughter’s Grant County series of 6 books featuring the popular character Sara Linton. The project will go into development immediately, with Slaughter co-writing the pilot script with Piller/Segan/Shepherd principal Scott Shepherd.
 
According to Total Film the new Avengers character banners have been revealed.  What with the film Marvel Avenger Assemble due to be released in the UK on 27 April 2012 lots of us are waiting for it.  The trailer can be seen below-

Sometime ago Shotsmag Confidential blogged about the City University London establishing a dedicated MA course in Crime Writing.  Things have moved on since then and they have now listed some of the authors that will be guest lecturing.  The authors are, Mark Billingham, Natasha Cooper, Barry Forshaw, Sophie Hannah, John Harvey, Cathi Unsworth, Dan Waddell and Laura Wilson.

That Stieg Larsson just won’t go away. Maclehose Press have published (with an introduction by Tariq Ali)  The Expo Files: And Other Articles by the Crusading Journalist. The Expo Files is a collection of essays and articles on right-wing extremism and racism, violence against women and women’s rights, homophobia and honour killing. The Expo Files is due to be published in April 2012.