2015 Left Coast Crime Award Nominations.

The 25th annual Left Coast Crime Convention will take place in Portland, OR, March 12–15, 2015. This year’s Guests of Honor are authors Chelsea Cain and Timothy Hallinan. Phillip Margolin is a Special Guest. Friends of Mystery are the Fan Guests of Honor. Author Gar Anthony Haywood will serve as Toastmaster. –

Left Coast Crime 2015, “Crimelandia,” will be giving four awards at the 25th annual LCC convention, to be held in Portland. The awards will be voted on at the convention and presented at a banquet on Saturday, March 14, at the Doubletree by Hilton Portland. The award nominees have been selected by convention registrants. The nomination period has just concluded, and LCC is delighted to announce the nominees for books published in 2014:

The Lefty has been awarded for the best humorous mystery novel since 1966 –

The Good, the Bad and the Emus by Donna Andrews (Minotaur Books)

Herbie’s Game by Timothy Hallinan (Soho Crime)

January Thaw by Jess Lourey (Midnight Ink)

Dying for a Dude by Cindy Sample (Cindy Sample Books)

Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere (Berkley Prime Crime)

The Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award (first awarded in 2004) is given to mystery novels covering events by 1960 –

Queen of Hearts by Rhys Bowen (Berkley Prime Crime)

From the Charred Remains by Susanna Calkins (Minotaur Books)

A Deadly Measure of Brimstone by Catriona McPherson (Minotaur Books)

City of Ghosts by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur Books)

Cup of Blood by Jeri Westerson (Old London Press)

The Rose, commemorating our Portland location, is for the best mystery novel set in the LCC region –

One Kick by Chelsea Cain (Simon & Schuster)

Glass Houses by Terri Nolan (Midnight Ink)

Pirate Vishnu by Gigi Pandian (Henery Press)

Deadly Bonds by LJ Sellers (Thomas & Mercer)

Plaster City by Johnny Shaw (Thomas Mercer)

The Rosebud, for the best first mystery novel set anywhere in the world -

Kilmoon by Lisa Alber (Muskrat Press)
Ice Shear by M.P. Cooley (William Morrow)

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens (Seventh Street Books)

The Black Hour by Lori Rader-Day (Seventh Street Books)

Mistress of Fortune by Holly West (Carina Press ebook)

The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by fans of mystery literature for fans of mystery literature, including both readers and authors. Usually held in the western half of North America, LCC’s intent is to provide an event where mystery fans can gather in convivial surroundings to pursue their mutual interests.

Congratulations to all.

Chelsea Cain's One Kick

Today's guest post is by bestselling author Chelsea Cain. Best known for her Gretchen Lowell and Archie Sheridan series, One Kick is the start of a new series featuring Kick a marksman, lock picker, escape artist and bomb maker.

 

When my first thriller, Heartsick, became a bestseller everyone wanted to know when I was going to write a "real" book.  The question puzzled me.  I thought I had written a book.  But it wasn't a book-book, I guess.  So everyone assumed that I had a book-book up my sleeve, some opus, my stab at the so-called Great American Novel.  They all looked so disappointed when I had to explain that all I had up my sleeves were more thrillers.   "But what do you really want to write?" they'd ask helpfully, like I hadn't properly considered the question.  So I looked deep down into my soul and really searched for anything I might really really really want to write.  You know what I saw there?  More thrillers.  (What a relief since I, as a thriller writer, was in a unique position to publish thrillers.)  I decided right then that I'd write multiple series.  I'd set them all in Portland, Oregon.  I would be a thriller series queen.  It was settled.  There was one small delay:  I couldn't think of anything else to write about.  Or more specifically anyone to write about. 

Writing a series means spending a lot of time with a character.  It's like a marriage.  Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's work, but if there's not a connection at the center of the relationship it's not going to last.  I was looking for love in all the wrong places and waking up the next morning alone and only halfway through a chapter.  Until I met Kick.  She sprang into my imagination nearly fully formed.  A missing child case that had been big news when I was a kid was reopened and that cold case came together with the stories of Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard (two missing girls thought dead and later rescued).  I had been riveted by the Smart and Dugard cases.  I am riveted by most crime stories - sometimes when I'm bored I Google "crime stories" just to see what deviant misadventures people have been up to in the last few hours - Americans do terrible things to one another. 

 When I was a kid we drank milk out of cartons with missing kids on them, so I am a particular sucker for those stories.  I usually solve the crime before I've finished the headline (step-father, drainage ditch).  Happy endings are rare.  By the time the kids are on the news or a milk carton the hour glass has run dry.  So when a kid reappears months or even years later, it's a resurrection.  When the Salt Lake City police found Elizabeth Smart nine months after her abduction, she was our collective little sister.  I cried.  I read everything I could get my hands on from celebrity magazine coverage to court transcripts.  Why?  It's another form of exploitation, isn't it?  I cringed at so much of what I read, but I couldn't look away.  I wanted to know more.  I am a series lover.  I always want the story to continue.  I want to know what happens next.  So I came up with a fantasy version of a girl who is abducted and survives, a young woman who struggles with her demons and her family, but also has made herself a skilled escape artist and a master at self defense, someone who uses her power to rescue others.  She is every girl who had been abducted and survived, and she is none of them.  When I look deep down into my soul for what I want to write about, my "real" book, my book-book, she is what looks back at me.

More information about Chelsea Cain and her work can be found on her website.  You can also follow her on Twitter @ChelseaCain and on Facebook.

Books to Look Forward to from Simon & Schuster

A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery - a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years.  The suspect claims he is a pawn in a huge labyrinth of lies and deception - can he be believed?  The case is immediately handed over to the FBI, but this time they're forced to ask for outside help.  Ex-criminal behaviour psychologist and lead Detective with the Ultra Violent Crime Unit of the LAPD, Robert Hunter, is asked to run a series of interviews with the apprehended man.  These interviews begin to reveal terrifying secrets that no one could've foreseen, including the real identity of a killer so elusive that no one, not even the FBI, had any idea he existed ...until now.  An Evil Mind is by Chris Carter and is due to be published in July 2014.

Hostage is by Kristina Ohlsson and is due to be published in September 2014.  Shortly after a crowded New York-bound flight takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found on board.  Anonymous hijackers demand that the Swedish government revoke its decision to deport a Moroccan man.  If their demands are not met, the plane will explode if it attempts to land.  The US and Swedish governments must choose between negotiating with terrorists in order to save the four hundred passengers held hostage at thirty thousand feet, or to stand their ground and pursue the deportation of a possibly innocent man.  Fredrika Bergman, familiar with the deportation case through her work in the Justice Department, now returns to the police force to act as a liaison between Police Superintendent Alex Recht, and the abrasive Eden Lundell, agent with the Security Service's counter-terrorism unit.  But they soon realize that the plot behind the hijacking is far more complex than anyone initially thought.  As the hours pass, the team are running out of options, and the plane is running out of fuel…

Trust in Me is by Sophie McKenzie and is due to be published in September 2014.  Julia has always been the friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult.  United fifteen years ago by grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've always told each other everything.  Or so Livy thought.  So when Julia is found dead in her home, Livy cannot come to terms with the news that she chose to end her own life.  The Julia that Livy knew was vibrant and vivacious, a far cry from the selfish neurotic that her family seem determined to paint her as.  Troubled by doubt but alone in her suspicions, Livy sets out to prove that Julia was in fact murdered.  But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's private life will cause her to question everything she thought she knew about Julia.  And the truth that Livy discovers will tear the very fabric of her own life apart.

Savage Magic is by Lloyd Shepherd and is due to be published in August 2014.  It's 1814 and the streets of London's Covent Garden are at the centre of a dark trade, enticing rich, and poor alike with a cocktail of gin and beer and sex.  Behind their own fashionable private doors in the surrounding parishes a group of aristocratic young men are found murdered, all of them wearing the mask of a satyr, all of them behind locked doors with no signs of entry.  Constable Charles Horton's investigation into these violent crimes begins, quite by chance, at Thorpe Lee House in Surrey, where accusations of witchcraft have swept the village.  What connects these broken London men, savage with the pursuit of pleasure, and a country village awash with folklore and talk of burning witches?  The answers lie, yet again, under lock and key, in a madhouse for the deranged, where Horton's wife Abigail seeks refuge from her disordered mind.  In this world of witchcraft and madhouses, whores and aristocrats, it's a savage magic indeed that holds its victims in its thrall.  Lloyd Shepherd's most ambitious novel to date is a triumph of the imagination.  His rich cast of characters weaves a hugely satisfying story of depth, insight, and exquisite drama.

Quantico-trained forensic investigator Reilly Steel is back in the country of her birth.  Unsure about both her future and her position within the Dublin police force, Reilly hopes that a relaxing stay at the Florida beach home of her old FBI mentor Daniel Forrest will help get her thoughts together.  When Daniel's son, policeman Todd Forrest, is called to the scene of a gruesome murder where the body of a beautiful woman has literally been torn in two, he is stopped in his tracks.  Not just because of the grotesque and theatrical nature of the crime but because he recognises the victim as Daniel's goddaughter.  In an attempt to find swift resolution on her old friend's behalf, Reilly finds herself drawn into the investigation.  And when another disturbing murder occurs soon after, Reilly can't help but feel that she has come across something like this before.  But where? The answer becomes apparent at a third crime scene - the killer is visually re-enacting some of the most famous murder scenes in screen history and posting his 'work' online for his followers and the whole world to see.  Will the investigative team be able to find the murderer before his thirst for 'screen immortality' drives him to kill again?  And will Reilly's brief hiatus in the US force her into a decision about her future in Dublin, and the unfinished business she has there?  The Watched is by Casey Hill and is due to be published in December 2014.

Kick Lannigan, 21, is a survivor.  Abducted at age six in broad daylight, the police, the public, perhaps even her family assumed the worst had occurred.  And then Kathleen Lannigan was found, alive, six years later.  In the early months following her freedom, as Kick struggled with PTSD, her parents put her through a litany of therapies, but nothing helped until the detective who rescued her suggested Kick learn to fight.  Before she was thirteen, Kick learned marksmanship, martial arts, boxing, archery, and knife throwing.  She excelled at every one, vowing she would never be victimized again.  But when two children in the Portland area go missing in the same month, Kick goes into a tailspin.  Then an enigmatic man Bishop approaches her with a proposition: he is convinced Kick's experiences and expertise can be used to help rescue the abductees. Little does Kick know the case will lead directly into her terrifying past…  One Kick is by Chelsea Cain and is due to be published by August 2014.

Perry Christo is a PI with a past.  A one-time NYPD homicide cop, his career was ruined when a cops-on-the-take scandal ripped through the department.  Though innocent, Perry had no way to prove it, and when he lost his job it was the last nail in the coffin of a strained marriage - his wife left him and took their young daughter with her.  In order to drown his anger and grief, Perry throws himself into mindless work as a private investigator for petty crimes.  But one day, a call from an Upper East Side matron, Julia Drusilla, throws his world upside down.  Julia needs Perry to track down her stunningly beautiful yet hopelessly aimless daughter, Angelina, who has disappeared.  Her 21st birthday is around the corner and she is set to inherit her grandfather's considerable wealth.  But as Perry digs deeper into the case, into one suspect after another, he discovers that Angelina may have more to her story than anyone may have realized, and that the person who has threatened her life is now coming after him.  Inherit the Dead is a seamless thriller with contributions from some of the biggest names in crime fiction including John Connolly, Mark Billingham, Sarah Weinman, Val McDermid, Charlaine Harris, Lawrence Block, Alafair Burke and Dana Stabenow to name a few.  Inherit the Dead is due to be published in September 2014.

Frozen Grave is by Lee Weeks and is due to be published in November 2014.The first body is found in London's East End - a middle-aged woman, brutally murdered.  The second body turns up in a disused quarry, attracting the attention of DI Carter and DC Willis.  They had interviewed the dead man, JJ Ellerman, about his links to the first crime, and somebody wanted to stop him talking.  And then the third body is found, and it becomes clear a serial killer is on the loose.  What connects the victims?  And who will the killer go after next?

Books to Look Forward to From Simon & Schuster

If you refuse to believe me, I will no longer consider you my son...Daniel believed that his parents were enjoying a peaceful retirement on a remote farm in Sweden, the country of his mother's birth. But with a single phone call, everything changes. Your mother...she's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things - terrible, terrible things. In fact, she has been committed to a mental hospital. Before Daniel can board a plane to Sweden, his mother calls: Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad...I need the police...Meet me at Heathrow. Daniel is immediately caught between his parents - whom to believe, whom to trust? He becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury. Presented with a horrific crime, a conspiracy that implicates his own father, Daniel must examine the evidence and decide for himself: who is telling the truth? And he has secrets of his own that for too long he has kept hidden... The Farm is by Tom Rob Smith and is due to be published in February 2014.

The Confessor is by Mark Allen Smith and is due to be published in June 2014.  Months have passed since Geiger found himself sitting in his own chair, facing his own torturer - a man called Dalton. The session didn't end well for Dalton. Geiger turned the tables on him and he has never been the same since. That was then. Now, Dalton is back, and he has just one thing in mind – vengeance.

Kick Lannigan, 21, is a survivor. Abducted at age six in broad daylight, the police, the public, perhaps even her family assumed the worst had occurred. And then Kathleen Lannigan was found, alive, six years later. In the early months following her freedom, as Kick struggled with PTSD, her parents put her through a litany of therapies, but nothing helped until the detective who rescued her suggested Kick learn to fight. Before she was thirteen, Kick learned marksmanship, martial arts, boxing, archery, and knife throwing. She excelled at every one, vowing she would never be victimized again. But when two children in the Portland area go missing in the same month, Kick goes into a tailspin. Then an enigmatic man Bishop approaches her with a proposition: he is convinced Kick's experiences and expertise can be used to help rescue the abductees. Little does Kick know the case will lead directly into her terrifying past… The currently untitled Chelsea Cain is due to be published in August 2014.

  

The Dead Can Wait is by Robert Ryan and is due to be published in January 2014.

Dr John Watson is fresh from his time in the trenches of Flanders Fields and back home for some much needed R & R. But deep in England's green and pleasant land something evil lurks. For enemy spies have infiltrated the home front, in search of vital information to take back to Germany. And when seven dead men are discovered, their bodies laid side by side, there is only one man who can solve this curious crime: Dr John Watson.

In September a currently untitled Chris Carter is due to be published. In rural Wyoming, a man arrested in conjunction with a murder case turns out to have a trail of kidnappings, torture and brutal killings reaching all over the United States linking to him. The Sheriff quickly hands the case over to the FBI, but the man refuses to co-operate. In fact, the only words he will utter are 'I will only speak to Robert Hunter'. Detective Robert Hunter of the Los Angeles Robbery Homicide Division is just about to take his first holiday in over ten years. But before boarding the plane, he is summoned to Captain Barbara Blake's office, where an FBI Director has flown in from Washington DC just to speak to him. The case intrigues Hunter, but he has no idea why the man has asked for him by name, until he sees a photograph of the man in custody - a criminal behaviour psychology graduate and his old university roommate - Lucien Folter. Someone Hunter knew well, or at least he thought he did. Could his old friend really have become a deranged serial killer? Surely there has been some mistake. For Hunter, there is only one way to find out. But it will stretch his abilities - and his grip on reality - further than they have ever been stretched before.

Julia has always been the friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult. United fifteen years ago by grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've always told each other everything. Or so Livy thought. So when Julia is found dead in her home, Livy cannot come to terms with the news that she chose to end her own life. The Julia that Livy knew was vibrant and vivacious, a far cry from the selfish neurotic that her family seem determined to paint her as. Troubled by doubt but alone in her suspicions, Livy sets out to prove that Julia was in fact murdered. But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's private life will cause her to question everything she thought she knew about Julia. And the truth that Livy discovers will tear the very fabric of her own life apart.  Trust in Me is by Sophie McKenzie and is due to be published in May 2014.

 

In The Blood is by Lisa Unger and is due to be published in February 2014.  About to graduate from university in upstate New York, Lana Granger takes a job in town looking after eleven year old Luke. Expelled from schools all over the country, manipulative Luke is accustomed to controlling the people in his life. He likes to play games. But in Lana he may have met his match. Or has Lana met hers? Because Lana is a liar. She has told so many lies about where she comes from and who she is, that even she can't remember the truth. Then Lana's closest friend Beck mysteriously goes missing, and Lana's alibi for the night of the disappearance doesn't match with eyewitness accounts. Now, Lana finds herself lying again - to friends, to the police, to herself. Lana is willing to do almost anything to keep the truth - about her last night with Beck, about everything - from coming out. Even so, it might not be enough to keep her shocking secrets dead and buried. But somebody knows all about Lana's lies. And they are dying to tell.

The currently untitled Penny Hancock is due to be published in August 2014.  Driving down to the cottage in Southwold she's newly inherited from her Aunty May, Ellie senses she is on the edge of something new. The life she's always dreamed of living as a successful artist seems as though it is about to begin. So excited is she that she barely notices when the car bumps against something on the road. That evening Ellie hears a news flash on the radio. A man was seriously injured in a hit and run on the very road she was driving down that evening. Then Ellie remembers the thump she heard. Could she have been responsible for putting a man in hospital? Unable to hold the doubts at bay, she decides to visit the victim to lay her mind to rest, little knowing that the consequences of this decision will change her life forever.

I’ve Got You Under My Skin is by Mary Higgins Clark and is due to be published in May 2014. Julia has always been the friend that Livy turns to when life is difficult. United fifteen years ago by grief at the brutal murder of Livy's sister, Kara, they've always told each other everything. Or so Livy thought. So when Julia is found dead in her home, Livy cannot come to terms with the news that she chose to end her own life. The Julia that Livy knew was vibrant and vivacious, a far cry from the selfish neurotic that her family seem determined to paint her as. Troubled by doubt but alone in her suspicions, Livy sets out to prove that Julia was in fact murdered. But little does she realise that digging into her best friend's private life will cause her to question everything she thought she knew about Julia. And the truth that Livy discovers will tear the very fabric of her own life apart.

The Silversmith’s Wife is by Sophia Tobin and is due to be published in January 2014.The year is 1792 and it's winter in Berkeley Square. As the city sleeps, the night-watchman keeps a cautious eye over the streets and another eye in the back doors of the great and the good. Then one fateful night he comes across the body of Pierre Renard, the eponymous silversmith, lying dead, his throat cut and his valuables missing. It could be common theft, committed by one of the many villains who stalk the square, but as news of the murder spreads, it soon becomes clear that Renard had more than a few enemies, all with their own secrets to hide. At the centre of this web is Mary, the silversmith's wife. Ostensibly theirs was an excellent pairing, but behind closed doors their relationship was a dark and at times sadistic one and when we meet her, Mary is withdrawn and weak, haunted by her past and near-mad with guilt. Will she attain the redemption she seeks and what, exactly, does she need redemption for…

In June a currently untitled Lynda La Plante is due to be published.  Amy Fulford, excellent pupil and gifted athlete at a girls' public school in Ascot vanishes one Saturday afternoon. DSI Marshe runs the local missing persons unit. He is responsible for overseeing the disappearance of Amy Fulford. But, as a late joiner and with only ten years of service, and a bullish DCS on his back, he tends to be unsure of himself. While the spiral of media interest in the missing daughter of a well-connected couple heats up, the spotlight turns on the parents who are embroiled in a bitter divorce. Amy's journal surfaces with disturbing entries about her mother's abilities - and also her father's sordid sexual activities. Marshe's DCS is convinced Marcus Fulford is responsible for his daughter's death. But Marshe himself is not so sure. He discovers some startling and disturbing discoveries about Amy's teachers and peers. Did Amy Fulford have a need to escape ...or was she driven by abuse and despair to disappear into another world?

Forthcoming books to look forward to from Pan Macmillan

Settled Blood is the second novel by Mari Hannah to feature Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels.  When a young girl is found dead at the base of Hadrian's Wall, it is not long before Detective Chief Inspector Kate Daniels realises her death was no ordinary homicide.  She was thrown from a great height and was probably alive before she hit the ground.  Then a local businessmen reports his daughter missing, has Daniels found the identity of her victim, or is a killer playing a sickening game?  As the murder investigation team delve deeper into the case, half-truths are told, secrets exposed, and while Daniels makes her way through a mountain of obstacles time is running out for one terrified girl.  Settled Blood is due to be published in November 2012.

  

The Lost Library is the debut novel by A M Dean and is due to be published in August 2012.  HE WAS THE KEEPER - Arno Holmstrand is about to die, his life cut short by an organization intent on laying claim to the secrets he has spent a lifetime guarding: the location of the lost Library of Alexandria, and the vast knowledge it has hidden for centuries.  SHE WILL INHERIT HIS LEGACY - Emily Wess is about to have her life change beyond all recognition.  One minute she is a professor of history, the next she is on a journey to the far corners of the world, deciphering strange clues left by her mentor, Arno Holmstrand.  She is being tested, but for what?  THEY WILL KILL FOR CONTROL - They are the Council and crave power and position.  Their corruption spreads from the highest levels of government to the assassins they employ to commit their crimes.  They will kill for the ancient knowledge contained in the Library.  And Emily Wess has exactly what they want.

  

Marine Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson is sent into Pakistan, where an international team of medical workers has been executed in order to cover up a deadly terrorist secret.  In the aftermath of great floods, a doctor on a relief mission in north eastern Pakistan discovers the remains of a collapsed bridge that reminds him of a bridge near his childhood home in Ohio.  He snaps a mobile phone picture and sends it to his sister, just before his entire team is slaughtered.  His sister is Beth Ledford, a Coast Guard sniper, who suspects that the answer to the mystery of her brother's death is in that cell phone picture.  No one believes her until she finds Swanson and the secret special operations team known as Task Force Trident.  When Kyle takes Beth into Pakistan to investigate, they find the true secret behind the mass murder - what may be the last, best hope of victory by al-Qaeda and the Taliban over allied forces.  Now the two snipers have their sights set on one man, an American diplomat who has become the biggest obstacle to victory in the war on terror.  The only question is: which of them gets to pull the trigger?  Running the Maze by Jack Coughlin and Donald A Davis and is due to be published in December 2012.

Ex-Special Agent Dewey Andreas has retreated to rural Australia to escape the turbulent forces he once fought against.  US National Security Advisor, Jessica Tanzer, has her own reasons for wanting him home.  But there is someone else who has a much more sinister agenda.  Someone who seeks revenge and who will not rest until he finds the man who has ruined his life.  Meanwhile in the border region of Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan is escalating.  As the situation quickly spins out of control, it becomes clear that world peace is in jeopardy.  With just hours to head off disaster, the US President joins forces to help avert a worldwide crisis.  There is only one man he can trust to carry out the near impossible task.  Can he be found in time, and can he be persuaded to carry out the most difficult and dangerous mission of his career? Coup d’Etat is by Ben Coes and is due to be published in August 2012.

'The shadowy Gangster Squad was formed in 1946 with eight men operating out of two rusted old Fords.  They had no office and made no arrests -- the idea was to remain invisible.  By the time I met Sgt. Jack O'Mara, most of the early members were dead, so I set out to find the survivors.’  Based on the hugely popular Los Angeles Times column 'LA Noir: Tales from the Gangster Squad', this is the dark-hearted true story of a group of men cleaning up the mean streets of post-War America.  From hundreds of interviews with the original members of the team it stitches together the story of Jack O'Mara, his dangerous colleague Jerry Wooters ('the killer cop, that's what they called me') and their anything-goes war with arch-criminal Mickey Cohen and his budding rival Jack 'The Enforcer' Whalen.  A tale of stake-outs, shoot-outs and even the famous Black Dahlia murder case, this is ice-cool narrative non-fiction at its best -- and the basis for a huge Warner Brothers film of the same name, starring Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Emma Stone. The Gangster Squad is by Paul Lieberman and is due to be published in October 2012.

The Last Tomorrow is by Ryan David Jahn and is due to be published in July 2012.  April 1952.  Los Angeles.  After thirteen-year-old Sandy Duncan shoots his stepfather in the temple and carves a symbol into the corpse's forehead in imitation of a comic book, district attorney Seymour Markley launches a grand jury investigation into the murder and its causes, an investigation that could implicate east coast crime boss James Manning and end his thirty-year career.  Also potentially implicated: the comic book's creator, Eugene Dahl, who now spends his mornings working as a milkman and his evenings warming bar stools.  Threatening notes begin appearing nailed to his front door, notes that draw him to a downtown hotel where one of the district attorney's witnesses, one of the men who could bring down James Manning, is being held.  There, Eugene finds the witness murdered, as well as the police officer charged with protecting him; and he finds himself framed for those murders.  He is forced to go on the run, and, in order to clear his name, to devise a plan that involves deeds far worse than anything he has been framed for.  And he must commit those deeds with the police right behind him.

A chance encounter with a strange young woman leads Inspector Montalbano to Vigata harbour and into a puzzling new mystery.  The crew of a mysterious yacht - the Vanna - due to dock in the area have discovered a corpse floating in the water, the dead man's face badly disfigured.  It is not long before Montalbano begins to become suspicious of the Vanna's inhabitants.  Who is the yacht's owner, the glamorous and short-tempered Livia Giovannini?  How has she accrued her riches?  And why does she spend so much time at sea?  Meanwhile Montalbano finds himself getting into tangles with the dreaded Commissioner, the exasperating Dr Lattes and a very beautiful young woman at the harbour, with whom he becomes dangerously besotted ...Can the Inspector clear his head long enough to unravel this murky mystery? The Age of Doubt is by Andrea Camileri and is due to be published in November 2012.

  

Kill You Twice is by Chelsea Cain and is due to be published in August 2012.  Archie Sheridan should be recovering from his past run-ins with serial killer Gretchen Lowell, yet he is just as haunted as the day she let him go.  But when a cyclist comes across a corpse in Mount Tabor Park on the eastern side of Portland, Archie suddenly has to focus.  Then comes a call from an unlikely source.  After months of ignoring a doctor at the mental hospital where Gretchen is supposed to be locked away forever, Archie hears that she may have inside knowledge about the new investigation.  But is she bluffing just to get close to him, and can he risk losing his only lead.  One thing is for sure: Gretchen Lowell is back, and Archie must decide if catching a killer is worth facing his demons one more time.

  

When a CIA informant from Kandahar is gunned down in a suburban area of Virginia outside D.C., special Agent Jack Saunders is tasked with uncovering a plot that could alter the fate of Afghanistan and unsettle a tepid peace in the Middle East.  But when a raid on a radical safe house goes horribly wrong, Jack finds himself without support within his own government.  Determined to find answers on his own, Jack enlists the aid of Cianna Phelan, a disgraced former war hero trying to put her life back together.  When Cianna's brother, Charlie, returns to South Boston from active duty in Afghanistan and immediately goes missing, Cianna and Jack find themselves in a race against time not only to save his life, but also to prevent an international conspiracy at the highest levels of the US intelligence community.  As lives are lost in the warrens of Boston's clannish underworld, Jack and Cianna realize they are on the trail of one of the most sacred artefacts in all of Islam.  And when the bullets start to fly, they realize they can never know whom to trust, and nothing is what it seems.  The Guardian is by David Hosp and is due to be published in August 2012.

Ash is by James Herbert and is due to be published in August 2012.  David Ash detective of the paranormal is sent to the mysterious Comraich Castle, secluded deep in the Scottish countryside, to investigate a strange, high-profile case: a man has been found crucified in a room that was locked.  The reports suggest that the cliff-top castle is being haunted ...Who or what is the reclusive hooded figure that Ash has seen from the window walking across the courtyard in the dead of night?  What are the strange, animal-like sounds that come from the surrounding woods?  And why are the castle's inhabitants so reluctant to talk about what they have seen?  ...what Ash eventually discovers is truly shocking.  Featuring one of Herbert's best-loved characters, first encountered in The Ghosts of Sleath and Haunted, Ash is a ghost story like no other that will chill you to the marrow...

In 1941, mixed race Ruby Darke is born into a family that seem to hate her, but why?  While her two brothers dive into a life of gangland violence, Ruby has to work in their family store.  As she blossoms into a beautiful young woman, she crosses paths with aristocrat Cornelius Bray, a chance meeting that will change her life forever.  When she finds herself pregnant, and then has twins, she is forced to give her children away.  At that point, she vows never to trust another man again.  As the years pass, Ruby never forgets her babies, and as the family store turns into a retail empire, Ruby wants her children back.  But secrets were whispered and bargains made, and if Ruby wants to stay alive she needs to forget the past, or the past will come back and kill her.  Nameless is by Jessie Keane and is due to be published in August 2012.

Dark Waters is the second in the Cragg & Fidelis historical mystery series by Robin Blake and is due to be published in August 2012.  Preston, 1741.  The drowning of drunken publican Antony Egan is no surprise even if it comes as an unpleasant shock to coroner Titus Cragg, whose wife was the old man's niece.  But he does his duty to the letter, and the inquest's verdict is accidental death.  Meanwhile the town is agog with rumour and faction, as the General Election is only a week away and the two local seats are to be contested by four rival candidates.  But Cragg's close friend, Dr Luke Fidelis, finds evidence to cast doubt on the events leading to Egan's demise.  Soon suspicions are further roused when a well-to-do farmer collapses and it appears he was in town on political business.  Is there a conspiracy afoot?  The Mayor and Council have their own way of imposing order, but Cragg is determined not to be swayed by their pressure.  With the help of Fidelis's scientific ingenuity, the true criminals are brought to light...

Blood Ties: The Calabrian Mafia is by Gianluigi Nuzzi and Claudio Antonelli and is due to be published in August 2012.  A massive bestseller in its native Italy, and a book that can justly be compared with Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah, Blood Ties is a terrifying account of the 'ndrangheta's criminal activities over the last four decades.  Originally, from Calabria, this sinister organization has - like the Mafia in Sicily and the Camorra in Naples - a vicious hold over northern Italy and much of the rest of the country, too, a stranglehold that is growing every day.  Told to the authors by an insider, Pippo di Bella, a 'pentito', a former member of the gang now turned state's evidence, it reveals many hitherto unknown operations, as well as throwing new light on well-known cases from the past.  It shows an organization which retains and strengthens its position through corruption, drug smuggling, gun running, violence, extortion and kidnapping.  Visceral, compelling and terrifyingly readable, it paints a brutally vivid picture of the most dangerous and powerful of the Italian mafias, one which demands to be read.

Why would suicide need a witness?  On the east coast of Ireland, Victor Delahaye, one of the country's most prominent citizens, takes his business partner's son out sailing.  But once at sea, Davy Clancy is horrified to witness Delahaye take out a gun and shoot himself dead.  This strange event captures the attention of Detective Inspector Hackett and his friend Pathologist Doctor Quirke.  The Delahayes and Clancys have been rivals for generations and the suicide lays bare the perplexing characters at the heart of the mystery, from Mona, Delahaye's toxic young widow, to Jonas and James, his strange, enigmatic twin sons; and Jack Clancy, his down-trodden, womanizing partner.  And when a second death occurs, one even more shocking than the first, Quirke begins to realise that terrible secrets lie buried within these entangled families; and that in this world of jealousy, ruthless ambition and pride nothing is quite as it seems…  Vengeance is by Benjamin Black and is due to be published in August 2012.

The Boy in the Snow is the second book in the series featuring Edie Kiglatuk by M J McGrath and is due to be published in October 2012.  When Arctic guide Edie Kiglatuk stumbles across a body abandoned in the Alaskan forest, she little imagines what her discovery will lead her to.  With the local police convinced the death is linked to the Dark Believers, a sinister Russian sect, Edie's friends insist she leave the investigation to the proper authorities.  But remaining in the area as part of the support team for her ex-husband Sammy's bid to win the famous Iditarod dog sled race, Edie cannot get the image of the frozen corpse out of her mind.  While Sammy travels across some of world's toughest and most deadly terrain, Edie sets off on an investigation which will take her into a dark world of politics, corruption and greed as a painful secret in her past finally catches up with her...

Criminal Splattering's Film News

Walter Mosley has formed along with TV series and documentary producer Diane Houslin a production company according to Indiewire.com.  The production company to be known as B.O.B. Filmhouse (Best of Brooklyn Filmhouse) has been set up with the goal being to play an "active role" in the adaptation of Mosley’s novels into films and TV series.

According to the Hollywood Reporter Canadian indie producer, New Franchise Media has tapped Brian D. Young to do a re-write of the Jeffrey Archer novel False Impression, which is now in the script stage.  They have also (according to Deadline.com) hired Richard Regen to adapt the separate novel, A Matter of Honor, into a multi-film franchise property.

Elmore Leonard has according to Deadline.com signed with United Talent Agency who will represent him in film, TV, digital and allied rights. With the overwhelming success of Justified, Leonard, who continues with literary agent Andrew Wylie, is eager to see more of his books adapted for the screen.

According to Digital Spy, FX has put in development a drama series adaptation of Chelsea Cain’s best-selling book series Heartsick. The thriller novels, Heartsick, Sweetheart and Evil At Heart, center on beautiful therapist-turned-series killer Gretchen Lowell and her relationship with damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan.Heartsick is the first book in the series — there are four to date — introduces the Portland detective and his pursuit of serial killer Gretchen Lowell. In the end, she was the one who caught him, but after torturing him for days, she mysteriously let him go and turned herself in. Since then the she has been locked up, leaving Archie damaged but alive in a prison of another kind — addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days or Gretchen off his mind.  When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets, Archie has to pull himself together to head up a new task force, but even then he can’t stop him without getting information from Gretchen — an encounter that may destroy him.  With Susan Ward, a hungry young newspaper reporter, profiling Archie and his team, Archie, the killer, and Gretchen enter into a dark and deadly game.

Authors Don Winslow (Savages and The Winter Of Frankie Machine) and Chuck Hogan (Prince of Thieves) have (according to Deadline.com) teamed up to write an untitled crime script.  The script is a contemporary crime thriller and the plot revolves around two men who inevitably collide, amidst a host of supporting characters.

According to Variety.com, Sean Bean has been signed on to play Detective Benny Griessel in a film based on South African author Deon Meyer’s “Devil’s Peak” book trilogy.  Bean will play a recovering alcoholic detective who is struggling to keep his family together, while also trying to solve a case of a vigilante killer who is executing personal vendettas. Devil’s Peak is followed by 13 Hours and 7 Days and will be produced by Malcolm Kohll.