Bouchercon Shifting into gear!

So the first two days of Bouchercon are over! It has been such good fun. The panels have had a constant buzz about then with a lot of the conversation spilling out onto the signings. The book room is also full. There were around 100 walk ins on Thursday.

The panel Passengers fasten your seatbelts…. was full but it was not unexpected since the panel was comprised of most of the guest of honours. It was a freewheeling panel, which was moderated by Oline Cogdill. It was also clear that all the panel members were not only got on well with each other but were friends as well. The questions were wide ranging and the one on where the authors got their inspiration from received the best response from them all especially Val McDermid’s explanation.

I also managed to attend the Unnatural Vices – Comics and Crime Fiction panel that was not only amusing but also interesting. The panel members were Max Allan Collins, Gary Phillips, Jonathan Stantlofer, Jason Starr and Duane Swierczynski who also moderated the panel instead of Cullen Bunn who unfortunately could not be there.

There were other panels that took place but unfortunately I was unable to attend some of them. The other big event that took place on Thursday evening was the opening ceremony and reception where the Macavity Awards and Barry Awards were to be given out along with a number of Crimespree Awards as well.

Crimespree Magazine awards that were given out were as follows –

Best First Novel- Do Some Damage by Hilary Davidson

Best Novel – Expiration Date by Duane Swierczynski

Ali Karim was also honoured as the first recipient of the David Thompson Award for Special Services. Luckily, I got to say a few words about him before he was given the award and it was quite nice to see him taken aback for a change. Congratulations Ali! The award was well deserved. The David Thompson Award for Special Services was named after the late David Thompson of Murder by the Book in Houston who was an enthusiastic and supportive about crime fiction author and everything about the genre.

The winner of the Barry and Macavity awards are as follows –

Barry Awards -

Best novel – The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Best first novel – The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron

Best British Novel – The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill

Best Paperback Original – Fever to the Bone by Val McDermid

Best Thriller – 13 Hours by Deon Meyer

Best Short Story – The List by Loren D Estleman

Congratulations to all the winners but especially to Val as this is her third Barry Award!

Macavity Award -

Best Mystery Novel – Bury your Dead by Louise Penny

Best First Mystery – Rogue Island by Bruce Da Silva

Best Mystery Non-fiction - Agatha Christie's Secret: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making by John Curran

Best Mystery Short Story – Swing Shift by Dana Cameron

Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery – City of Dragons by Keli Stanley.

Congratulations to all the winners!

After the ceremony Harper Collins publishers gave out copies of books of some of their authors. I got asked to help out and so I spent part of the evening helping Val McDermid and Laura Lippmann give out copies of their books to various people. Luckily for me despite the fact that I was busy working I managed to get hold of a copy of Laura Lippman’s new book The Most Dangerous Thing, Alafair Burke’s standalone novel Long Gone and Jonathan Hayes Novel A Hard Death.

I also managed to get away and attend the Atlantic Monthly Press and relaunch of The Mysterious Press cocktail party. I did not however stay up too late as I was due to be on a panel the following morning at 8:30am.

There has been such a buzz at Bouchercon and of course the bar has been full at all times. One cannot fully express how wonderfully run this convention has been. It has been superb. From the hospitality suite that is constantly in use to the large number of volunteers that are on tap to help out or answer questions, to the book room that is not only vast but also wants you to spend the whole day there. I can only say that Ruth and John Jordan along with Judy Bobalik have put on a wonderful event.

Friday morning started with a bang for me as I had a panel at 8:30am. However before then I attended the Librarian breakfast, which was held in the magnificent Crystal Ballroom on the 20^th floor of the hotel. The event was hosted by the mid-western chapter of the MWA and had tables, which were sponsored by a number of authors. It was good way to start the morning and there were very few speeches. Colin Cotterill said a few words and Charlaine Harris gave a wonderful speech on her love of libraries and the books that influenced her.

My 8:30am panel was entitled Bad Blood – Celebrating Agatha Christie. My fellow panel members were Carolyn Hart, G M Malliet and Val McDermid. The moderator was Ted Hertel. It was a good panel and a large number of people turned up to listen to us talk about all things Agatha Christie including her legacy, did we consider her to be a cosy writer? The answer was evidently not!, whether or not Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were given an appropriate send off, we all thought that they had not. What did we think of her most controversial novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? Had she played fast and loose with the reader? What did we think of her two main characters? And of course what were our favourite novels or short stories by Agatha Christie? As can be expected we all trooped into the book room for signing and I was rather amazed to see that not only had a signing desk been allocated to me but I also had a number of people come up and ask me to sign their programme!

One of the off site events that had been arranged as part of Bouchercon was a charity bowling event that took place at the Flamingo Bowl. Everybody had a wonderful time and I was part of the Crimespree Wrecking crew. I understand that $500 was raised for the St Louis County Library. However as a result of this I had to miss a number of the interviews that were taking place at the same time and this included the Toastmaster Ridley Pearson being interviewed by Jeff Abbott and Robert Crais being interviewed by Gregg Hurwitz. One of the good things about this Convention however is the fact that all the panels are being recorded.

The Shamus Awards were also given out on Friday evening at a dinner that was held off site.

The Hammer Award – Sara Paretsky for V I Warshawski

Lifetime Achievement Award – Ed Gorman

Best Hardcover – No Mercy by Lori Armstrong

Best First Novel – In Search of Mercy by Michael Ayoob

Best Paperback – Asia Hand by Christopher G Moore

Best P I Short Story – The Lamb was Sure to Go by Gar Anthony Haywood.

One of the highlights of every Bouchercon is the live auction. This year so far over $17,000 was raised. The auctioneers for the event were Laura Lippman and Mark Billingham. The auction had been organised by Crimespree’s film and comic guru Jeremy Lynch who did a magnificent job. I mean who would not want mementoes from Robert Crais character Elvis Cole? The highlight of the auction was the $7,000 paid by Laura Lippman to be a named character in the final Sookie Stackhouse book by Charlaine Harris. She piped Karin Slaughter (who was voting by proxy) to the post.

Friday night at the movies was also arranged and the films that were shown included a documentary about Derrick Raymond and Salvation Boulevard by Larry Beinhart.

So what is up for the last full day of Bouchercon?

I have a panel at 11:30am which I am moderating. My panel members are Megan Abbott, Daniel Woodrell, Paul Dorion, Thomas H Cook and Paul Gaus. Sarah paretsky is going to be interviewed by Kevin Guilfoile and Val McDermid by Jen Forbus. For those that are a lot more energetic there will be a basketball game as well.

More later……

Bouchercon is up and running!

Bouchercon well and truly starts this morning (Thursday) here in St Louis. However, Tuesday at St Louis was spent doing last minute things, which included unloading two u-haul’s full of boxes and over 1500 book bags. It took us over 16 hours to fill all the book bags and load the trucks but luckily due to the large number of volunteers which also included some panel members it only took us 1 ½ hours. Rather sadly since it started raining the movement of all the boxes and other related matters took place in the rain.

The booksellers also started to arrive and set up in the book room, which is massive. As indicated in yesterday’s blog post there were a number of pre-Bouchercon events taking place last night. By all accounts they went very well indeed. I spent the day helping the organisers with various things whilst meeting and saying hello to various people which included Sara Paretsky, Reed Farrell Coleman, Daniel Woodrell, Matt and Denise Hamilton, Jason Pinter, Jason Starr, Adrian Muller, Steve Hamilton, Pete Rozovsky, Martyn Waites, Robert Crais, Colin Cotterill, Catriona McPherson, Jan Burke, Charlaine Harris, Christa Faust and Yrsa Sigurdardottir and CWA short story winner Sean Chercover to name a few.

Jeremy Lynch has put together a wonderful and huge amount of gifts for the silent auction. If you are around you must go up and have a look at the stuff and be prepared to bid! Some of the stuff is amazing especially the items donated by Sara Paretsky and Robert Crais.

To say thank you to all the volunteers who have given up their time and have been helping with the event they arranged a dinner at the famous “Pappy’s Smokehouse”. It was an incredibly fun evening and the food was fantastic. I got to spend sometime catching up with two of the guests of honour Sara Paretsky and Val McDermid and also spend time with the extremely lovely Jen Forbus.

As one can be expected everybody congregated in the bar after and it heaving! I am not sure that they had seen so many people in the place.

The panels well and truly start today at 8:30am and it is going to be very interesting and difficult trying to sort out which of them to attend. The programme organisers have done a fantastic job. A number of them have already wetted my appetite. The only one that I know that I am going to certainly make sure that I have a front row seat for is Passengers – Fasten your Seat Belts….. I mean it is not often that you have all your guests of honour on one panel. It is in my opinion inspired programming.

The opening ceremony and reception takes place this evening as well and I am sure that it will be a lovely event. PS – For those of you that are here and reading this blog don’t forget to complete your Anthony Ballot! The box to submit your ballot can be found at the registration desk! The closing time for submitting your ballot is 5pm on Saturday evening!

Bouchercon here we come!!

This is the first of what will hopefully be my blog about Bouchercon. How frequent it is going to be I do not know.

Bouchercon does not exactly start until tomorrow but pre-Bouchercon stuff has been fun already. Thanks to Jon Jordan so far I have managed to go to a baseball game and saw the St Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves along with the ever delightful Ruth Jordan (Mrs Crimespree), Kirstie Long and Paul Jordan. At the same time the St Louis Rams were playing the Philadelphia Eagles and I have to say that despite the fact that I was at the baseball game I was also keeping my eye on the football results. Why you may ask? That is because I support Philadelphia Eagles so it was nice to see the results and realised that they beat the Rams! I have had a trip round the City Garden and have seen the wonderful sculptures and the pink flamingos! If you have chance to go to the City Garden then one should do so as it is a delight.

Since mid-morning Monday people have already started to turn up. I finally got to meet the wonderfully delightful Jen Forbus. Hi Jen! Adrian Magson and his wife Ann were amongst the first Brits to arrive (aside from myself and Kirstie long) who have been in St Louis since Saturday. Also renewed my acquaintance with Ann McNulty whom I last saw at Baltimore and also B G Ritts. Also met Kat Tromp again, John Purcell and Emily Bronstein (whom I last saw at Crimefest last year!). It was also lovely to see again after such a long time McKenna Jordan who owns Murder by the Book in Houston and Crimespree’s comic and film extraordinaire Jeremy Lynch along with his lovely wife Jill and his mother. Of course the place to be is the bar!

Pictures © Ayo Onatade

Yesterday evening (Tuesday) a lot more Brits started to arrive. My fellow Shotsmag colleagues Mike Stotter and Ali Karim flew in with Roger Ellory, Lauren Henderson, CWA Chairman Peter James, and Guest of Honour Val McDermid and rather later on Tuesday night (sans luggage) Russel McLean. Even though things have not really started today (Wednesday) is going to be rather busy. Trucks to unload with all the book bags and the stuff for registration, which should start @3pm this afternoon. The book bags are stuffed full of wonderful books and I dare anyone to complain! There will also be a swap table set up so if people want to leave books and or swap them there. It will be interesting to see how the hotel manage to cope with the large influx of people that are no doubt due to turn up today. I am sure that they will be fine as they have been excellent so far. So, if you see me wandering around the hotel at some stage during Bouchercon please do come up and say hello, give me a hug as I am sure that I may not remember to do so or I might be distracted and I would not want anyone to think that I was ignoring them on purpose.

There are also a lot of pre-Bouchercon activities taking place as well today. Noir at the Bar will be starting at eight PM, will be held at Meshuggah Café 6269 Delmar Boulevard Saint Louis, MO 63130 (314) 726-56626269. Admission is free, but bring money for drinks and books. Food is also available. Subterranean Books and Bouchercon present Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton in an intimate Q&A to benefit the St. Louis Public Library, at Christ Church Cathedral, 1210 Locust Street (across from Central Library, two blocks from convention hotel), Wednesday, Sept 14 6pm (Doors at 5pm). This is a ticketed event and your ticket price gains you admittance to the one-hour event and gets you a signed copy of Harris' SOOKIE STACKHOUSE COMPANION or Hamilton's HIT LIST.

Tickets available here

St Louis County Library presents “Suspense Night 2011” on Wednesday, September 14, at 7 p.m. at Library Headquarters, 1640 S. Lindbergh Blvd. The free event brings together seven suspense authors from across the country. The authors are Megan Abbott, Reed Farrell Coleman, S J Rozan, Peter Spiegleman, Steve Hamilton, Lisa Lutz and Christa Faust.

Latest Crime News Round-Up

A rather long over due round up of crime fiction news –

Congratulations to the nominees announced this past weekend for the annual T. Jefferson Parker Book Award for Mystery & Thrillers, presented by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association:

• The Sentry by Robert Crais (Putnam)
• San Diego Noir edited by Maryelizabeth Hart (Akashic Books)
• Savages by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster)
• The Informant by Thomas Perry (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

There is an excellent interview in the Guardian with CWA Diamond Dagger Author Val McDermid. Certainly worth reading as she talks about football and phone hacking amongst other things!

Not sure where to start when it comes to Nordic crime authors? Well www.cleveland.com have done a eally good job of rounding up 10 examples that you could do well to take a look at. Of course Stieg Larsson is on the list!

The Irish Times have an excellent review of Declan Burke’s latest novel Absolute Zero Cool. This is one book that I am dying to get my hands on sooner rather than later. If you have not made Declan’s blog Crime Always Pays your one stop shop for all things relating to Irish crime writing then you are missing a treat.

With Bouchercon 2011 on the horizon in just over a month’s time there is a timely article in the Riverfront Times as to why you should be attending this august convention. The Shots crew will of course be there in force and I shall hopefully be doing some blogging and tweeting as @shotsblog as time permits. If you are still dithering as to whether or not you should attend, then hopefully the article will persuade you to do so. On the Friday at 8:30am I shall be on a panel Bad Blood: Celebrating Agatha Christie. The other members of the panel are Val McDermid, G M Malliet and Caroline Hart. The moderator will be Ted Hertel. At 11:30am on Saturday I shall be moderating the panel The Dead Line:Behind the White Picket Fence. The panel members are Megan Abbott, Daniel Woodrell, Thomas H Cook, Paul Doiron & P L Gaus. Ali Karim will be moderating the panel Falls the Shadow: Globalization of Crime Fiction on Saturday at 11:30am as well. The members of his panel are Mark Billingham, Sarah Blaedal, Karin Slaughter, Deon Meyer and Martyn Waites.

Interesting article on the Criminal Minds blog from one of my all time favourite authors Gary Philips on how much modern technology Ivan Monk would actually embrace.

There is an excellent article on Peter Rozovsky blog Detectives Beyond Borders where he talks about humour in Swedish Crime novels. He specifically mentions Three Seconds by Roslund and Helström. This has been followed up by a further article on the blog The Game’s Afoot where Arnaldur Indridason’s humour is discussed.

The Montreal Mirror also has an article on Nordic crime. The article discusses how Larsson’s popularity has pushed other authors into the limelight such as Henning Mankell, Analdur Indriðason and Jo Nesbø.

With the terrible massacre that took place in Utøya Brian Oliver in the Observer wonders how Nordic crime writers will deal with the incident in their writing.

In a feature at NPR Norwegian author Anne Holt says politicians would do well to read crime fiction, a mirror on society. She is also interviewed at PBS.Org where she talks about the lessons of Oslo.

Writing in the Guardian author Jo Nesbø discusses the fact that the attacks in Oslo and Utøya have changed Norway forever and it will never again be the innocent, trusting place it once was.

Excellent blog post by Maxine over on her site Petrona about crime fiction from Norway! She has also posted an equally brilliant one about crime fiction from Sweden. Certainly worth reading by those who think that Stieg Larsson is the only author who writes Swedish crime.

Not sure how I managed to miss this but there is an excellent piece in the Guardian that came out around the same time of the Harrogate Crime Festival about Partners in Crime Fiction. Authors such as Lee Child, Benjamin Black and RJ Ellory choose their favourite characters by other crime writers.

Rohan Maitzen has over at the Los Angeles Review of Books written an excellent article on the Martin Beck series by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö.

So are you interested in the top ten crime writers that you should be reading as a fan of the genre before you die? I am sure you would be. First versions of this list by John Connolly and Declan Hughes were presented at the Dalkey Book Festival back in June 2011, and at the world mystery convention, Bouchercon in San Francisco. It is reproduced on the Writing i.e blog. But do you agree with all their suggestions? As a matter of fact I do. Bearing in mind the books on the list one would find it rather difficult not to.

There is an excellent review in The Independent by Boyd Tonkin on South London author Alex Wheatle’s novel Brenton Brown that is particularly on topic in the light of the recent disturbances that have taken place in London.

Tony Thompson whose novel Outlaws: Inside the Violent World of Biker Gang is published by Hodder & Stoughton writes an interesting article in The London Evening Standard about growing up in Tottenham in the light of the recent riots. Makes for interesting and sobering reading. How times have changed!

There is a round up of in the Guardian of thrillers by John O’ Connell. His choices include Luther: The Calling by Neil Cross and Burned by Thomas Enger. There is also an interview in the Guardian with Neil Cross who explains why he does not get on with novelists.

Jake Kerridge of the Telegraph interviews Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine.

Absolutely cool interview in the Independent on Dennis Lehane by James Kidd. He talks about his life, writing and bankers!

On her brief trip to the UK the Daily Express managed to nab an interview with Megan Abbott.

According to USA Today (Books) Author Jamie Freveletti is to continue writing Robert Ludlum’s Covert One series. Her first novel Running From the Devil won the International Thriller Writers award for best first novel. The third novel in the Emma Caldridge series The Ninth Day is due to go on sale on 27 September 2011. Furthermore David Baldacci books may also be coming to television.

As part of its Crime in the City feature NPR talk to Michael Harvey co-creator of A&E's real-cop TV series, Cold Case Files. Harvey is also the author of 4 crime novels The Chicago Way, The Fifth Floor, Third Rail and We All Fall Down. His main protagnonist is Michael Kelly, a former Chicago cop.

In another feature they also talk to George Pelecanos about racially divided Washington DC. Pelecanos has a new book out The Cut which features a new protagonist Spero Lucas an Iraq veteran who is a special investigator for a criminal attorney. George Pelecanos also talks to CS Monitor.com about his new novel.

According to the Bookseller Polygon have bought a novel by Private Eye writer and cartoonist Bruce Fantoni. The book has been described as "an intoxicating blend of Raymond Chandler and Woody Allen", is about the world's oldest private eye, who is based in modern-day Miami. It will be published as a small format hardback in summer 2012.

The American Culture have an interesting article on Raymond Chandler by Curt Evans where he looks at Raymond Chandler and British Detective Fiction. Part one can be found here and part two here.

Interesting article at Salon.com about series that have been continued by other authors after the death of the original author.

The Los Angeles Times has an interesting profile on author James Sallis whose 2005 novel Drive is due to be released shortly in the cinema on September 16. His latest novel The Killer is Dying is also due to be published later on this year.

John Grisham has been awarded the inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for his work in The Confession. The new literary award is co-sponsored by The University of Alabama School of Law and the ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. The judges included David Baldacci and Linda Fairstein.

According to the Bookseller Random House have produced an app to go along with the Wallender series. The app “In the Footsteps of Wallander", is available to download in English, Swedish and German through an iPhone or Android phone.

According to the British Film Institute’s magazine Sight and Sound Scorsese’s Shutter Island which is based on the best selling novel by Dennis Lehane is as much as it is being an excellent film as it is a testament to the cinema era of the 1940s and 1940s. There is a spoiler in the essay so you might want to give it a miss if you do not want it to spoil your enjoyment of the film.

Film News

According to Deadline News after a bidding war 20^th C Fox have nabbed the rights to a series of books by renowned Swedish criminologist and novelist Leif G.W. Persson for Stephen Gaghan to develop as a TV series. The TV project will be based on the central character in Persson's books -- Evert Backstrom. The full article can be found here. Meanwhile Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series and Three Seconds, by Anders Roslund & Borge Hellstrom have been sold to Working Title and Shine/New Regency respectively.

For fans of the new Sherlock Holmes series Mark Gatiss talks about the second series over at DarkHorizons.com.

And more things Sherlock Holmes, director Guy Ritchie popped down to Empire Presents… Big Screen on 13 August and revealed some titbits about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows the sequel to Sherlock. A trailer can be seen below-

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is due out in the UK on 16 December 2011.

Fans of Spooks will be disappointed to hear that the BBC have cancelled the spy drama after a decade. The full reason can be found here in the Guardian article.

According to Empireonline.com John C McGinley who is best known for playing insult-flinging medical genius Perry Cox on Scrubs is joining the cast of I, Alex Cross.

According to The Australian a number of Hollywood’s leading ladies are scrambling to play the lead character in the film version of S J Watson’s overnight success of a novel Before I Go To Sleep. The full article can be found here.

I am sure that I am not the only one looking forward to the remake of Tinker, Tailor Soldier, Spy which is based on John le Carré's novel. A further trailer has been released and can be seen below –

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy is due out on September 16 2011.

According to the Hollywood Reporter Millennium Films have bought the film rights to Noah Boyd’s debut novel The Bricklayer. Actor Gerald Butler is set to star as former FBI Agent turned bricklayer Steve Vail. He is called on by his ex-colleagues to help stop a criminal group that is demanding increasingly high series of ransom payments and finds himself working alongside a female deputy director of the FBI.

Variety News reveal that ABC have ordered a script from Lionsgate that could convert "The Lincoln Lawyer" feature film into a drama series.

Robin Collin of the Telegraph in his article does not sound to keen about the prequel of Morse that is due to be shown on ITV. The one-off drama is called Endeavour. A further article about the prequel can also be found here. The press release from ITV can be found here.

According to ABC Entertainment News John Cusack claims that Edgar Allan Poe was something of a rock star in his day. The actor is due to play Poe in the film The Raven that is due out next year. His comments were made at Comic-Con San Diego where the film was previewed for fans.

Latest Crime News Round-Up

For those of you that missed out on the event of the year i.e. Crime in the Court then have no fear as the redoubtable David Headley of Goldsboro Books will be having another crime fiction related event in September. This time the event will be History in the Court. The date is 29 September and there will be historical re-enactments taking place. Watch this space for more information!

According to the Bookseller Ian Fleming Publications have appointed Curtis Brown as the worldwide literary agents for the Ian Fleming James Bond novels as well as future Bond literary works. Jonny Geller and Curtis Brown are taking over from Simon Trewin at United Agents.

Sphere have according to the Bookseller have signed Scottish author Alex Gray to two more books in her Glasgow based crime series.

Despite the fact that her editor Kate Eldon has moved to HarperCollins, bestselling author Karin Slaughter has signed up again to a two-book contract to Century.

Harvill Secker have signed Norwegian author Jo Nesbø to a single book deal. Nesbø is the author of the Harry Hole novels. According to the Bookseller the Phantom is the sequel to the bestselling novel The Leopard and will be published in January 2012.

The public vote for World Book Night 2012 is now open to the public so that members of the public can nominate their favourite 10 novels. More information can be found here. The vote is open until 31 August 2011.

Interesting article in the New York Times by Jeff Lindsay the author of the Dexter series. In his article he talks about writing his Dexter series and why we are so fascinated by serial killers.

Congratulations go to Mulholland UK who are due to publish Iced by Bernard Minier, a debut French crime writer. The full news can be found here.

With a five part mini-series currently being shown on Sky Atlantic featuring Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood, Sarah Churchwell's article in the Guardian about re-reading James M Cain’s Mildred Pierce wonders what has been gained and lost with the Todd Haynes adaptation.

With the recent release of her memoir There Are Things I Want You To Know' About Stieg Larsson and Me about her relationship with Stieg Larsson, Eva Gabrielsson his common-law-widow answers a Q&A for the Wall Street Journal online. The is also a Los Angeles Times Books article as well.

With Jeffrey Deaver still on his James Bond duty with the recent launch of Carte Blanche, TheWeek.com have a list of his six favourite espionage novels. Needless to say and unsurprisngly there is at least one Ian Fleming novel on the list as well as a John le Carré novel and Len Deighton.

John le Carré has been awarded the Goethe Medal for his contribution to "the development of coalescence, peace and creativity in Europe". The full article can be found in the Guardian.

With Smokin’ Seventeen just released in the US, Janet Evanovich talks to USA Today about all things Plum related and the fact that for the first time there will be two numbered Plum books released in 2011. Explosive Eighteen will be released in November in the USA.

A group of best-selling authors has teamed up to urge the public to donate money to a cutting-edge university facility - a morgue. According to the BBC author Val McDermid along with other luminaries such as Lee Child, Stuart McBride and Tess Gerristen have already pledged their support. The Guardian article can be found here.

According to Publishers Weekly, under the auspices of its Vintage Crime/Black Lizard imprint, Vintage Books is launching the Weekly Lizard, a mobile-optimized online site devoted to news and feature content about crime and mystery writing. It will also offer content under several topical sections on the site. First up includes a feature on Ruth Rendell by Val McDermid. She writes about the longevity of Inspector Wexford.

Huffington Post asks their readers to pick their favourite book character that they would most like to sleep with. So far the entries include Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre, Acheron from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series (now that I can understand), Mr Darcy, Sherlock Holmes, Lady Chatterley, Albert Campion, Willie Garvin (Modesty Blaise’s sidekick), Alex Cross, Elisabeth Salander, Ranger and Morelli from Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, Roarke from J D Robb’s InDeath series (another one I can understand), Rhett Butler, Atticus Finch, Harry Dresden, Philip Marlowe and Lucas Davenport to name a few!

According to Deadline.com Jennifer Lopez is in talks to play the lead female opposite Jason Statham in Parker, the Taylor Hackford-directed action film adaptation of the Donald Westlake mystery novel series. The character has already been played by Lee Marvin in Point Blank and of late by Mel Gibson in Playback.

According to Inside Movies actor Antonio Banderas is teeming up with Pedro Almodóvar for the thriller The Skin I Live In. What initially looks like a straightforward hold-up turns into something entirely different. The Trailer can be seen below!


La Piel Que Habito Teaser / flix.gr by Flixgr
The Skin I Live In was shown earlier at Cannes 2011. The Guardian review can be found here.

ITV have re-commissioned another series of Lewis. Three of the new films are currently titled - ‘Generation of Vipers’, ‘The Age of Foolishness’ and ‘Death of the Author. Former Bond villain Toby Stephens will star in one of the episodes and Morse creator Colin Dexter will continue to act as series consultant

If you were like me and positively devoured the award winning series of graphic novels 100 Bullets written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Eduardo Risso then I am sure that you will be pleased learn that according to Deadline.com, Showtime have joined forces with David S Goyer to write and executive produce 100 Bullets as a drama series project as a potential TV series. It will be interesting to see how this turns out. 100 Bullets was an absolutely fantastic series of graphc novels.

According to TV Eh?, Canada’s source for information on Canadian Television shows three Canadian authors have had their books optioned for television series. The authors are William Deverell, Giles Blunt and Robert Rotenberg. The full media release can be found here. Deverell's series, set in the Gulf Islands and featuring attorney Arthur Beaucham, won the Hammett award for crime writing in 1997; Giles Blunt's Detective John Cardinal series won Britain's Silver Dagger Award for Fiction in 2001; and Robert Rotenberg's debut novel Old City Hall, about a popular radio host who is arrested for murdering his wife. Giles Blunt is said to be adapting his own material for television.

Vigilante Entertainment has optioned bestselling true-crime author Gregg Olsen's book Starvation Heights. Set in the Pacific Northwest it is the story of a egotistical woman doctor who took advantage of the popularity of Dr. Kellogg's health sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan and starved her patients to death.

Those of you that have been following Bouchercon memories over on the Bouchercon2011 blog may be interested to note that are very own Ali Karim has his own Bouchercon memory up on the blog. My Bouchercon memory can be found here.

The sad news of the death of Martin Greenberg has just been revealed by Mystery Fanfare Those of you that are fans of anthologies and short stories will no doubt recognise his name. Martin Greenberg was the editor of many an anthology spanning crime, horror and speculative fiction. I can attest to the fact of what a prolific editor he was by just looking on my own bookshelves where I stack my anthologies. He will most certainly be sorely missed. (Thanks to Janet Rudolph for the sad news)

More Newsy Stuff

The end of the year is nigh and Publishers Weekly have posted their best of list 2010 books. Crime fiction authors are well represented in a number of categories –

The fiction and mystery category can be found here and here. For some reason they have put The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook under romance? Sadly not one crime novel made their main Best Books of 2010 list. I wonder why?

Amazon.com have also revealed their Editor's Pick Top 100 novels 2010 as well. The complete list can be found here, here, here and here. Amazon.com have also listed Customers Favourites Top 100 novels of 2010. Nos 1-28 are here, 29-56, 57-84 and 85-100. In the Editor's pick there are not even a dozen crime novels on the list. However at least a quarter of the books on the Customers Favourites are crime novels.

As can be expected one can always find more news on Stieg Larsson. Word and Film have an interview with Niels Arden Oplev, who directed the original “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” about why women want to be Lisabeth Salander.

Another article regarding the remake of the original film can be found in the Guardian. The director (and quite rightly so in my opinion) says that Noomi Rapace the “original actress” to play Lisabeth Salander should not be forgotten as a result of the remake taking place in Hollywood. But is this a case of jealousy? I would hope not. Personally Noomi Rapace is for me Lisabeth Salander, but it will be interesting to see what the remake is like.

So did he or didn’t he? It looks like the case of he did not.

Baroness James (better known as PD James) has refuted in her local newspaper the story that Salman Rushdie used her home as a hideout during the period he was in hiding.

The dates of the 2011 Reading Festival of Crime Writing have been announced. They are 15 to 18 September 2011. More information can be found on the Festival Website. It is a shame that it is going to clash with Bouchercon in St Louis which is on at the same time. They might want to consider changing the dates!

Literary Kicks have an excellent list up on their site at the moment. Crimestars: Ten Prophets of the Golden Age of Ultraviolence. The list highlights a new breed of writers that discerning readers (in my opinion) should have on their bookshelves. The writers on the list are certainly ones that should be read but I have to admit that my favourite authors on the list are:- Charlie Houston, Duane Swierczynski, Allan Guthrie and Adrian McKinty. That is not to say that I do not like the others or have not read any of them. The only thing I can say is check them out. You will be pleasantly surprised!