2020 Nero Award & Black Orchid Novella Award Winners

 

The Nero Award is presented each year to an author for the best American Mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories. It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City. 

The Nero is considered one of the premier awards granted to authors of crime fiction. This year, the winner is David Baldacci's One Good Deed (Hatchette Book Group, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing). 

The Black Orchid Novella Award is presented jointly by The Wolfe Pack and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout. This year's winner is Tom Larsen. El Cuerpo en el Barril (The Body in the Barrel). It will be published in July 2021 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. 

Both award winners were announced and recognized at an online Wolfe Pack event on December 5, 2020. The Wolfe Pack hopes to present the awards in person at the 2021 Black Orchid Banquet in New York City on December 4, 2021. 

About the Wolfe Pack 

The Wolfe Pack, founded in 1977, is a forum to discuss, explore, and enjoy the 72 Nero Wolfe books and novellas written by Rex Stout. The organization promotes fellowship and extends friendship to those who enjoy these great literary works of mystery through a series of events, book discussions, and a journal devoted to the study of the genius detective, Nero Wolfe, and his intrepid assistant, Archie Goodwin. The organization has more than 500 members worldwide. 

For further information, please see - www.nerowolfe.org

Don't Judge Me, Ayo... Or, Wait, Please Do by Brad Parks

As inveterate readers of crime fiction, we know cops, because we’ve read a thousand police procedurals.

And we know attorneys, both defense and prosecution, because we’ve read an equal number of legal thrillers. To a slightly lesser degree, we also know medical examiners, fugitive apprehension experts, and so on, and so on. Virtually every job in the criminal justice system gets a thorough vetting in our genre.

Except, of course, for the one that perhaps matters most:

The judge.

In crime fiction—as in real life—the judge seems to issue rulings from on high, tossing them down like godly lightning strikes before fading back into the mists. We never hear much about the human heart beating beneath the robe (or, in the case of you charming Brits, under the wig).

I mention all this because, one, Ayo Onatade is the one who invited me here to ShotsMag, and I happen to know she looks after the Justices at the Supreme Court; and, two, a judge is the protagonist of my U.K. debut, Say Nothing.

In truth, I didn’t set out to till unplowed fields with this novel. I first came up with the premise—that a U.S. federal judge would have his children kidnapped by someone looking to control the outcome of a case he was hearing—and only later recognized that by happy accident I had stumbled upon fresh ground.

Once I did, my internal monologue went something like this: Huh, a judge. That’s kind of interesting.

And then it went: Oh, bollocks. I’m writing this in first person, but I don’t know a blessed thing about what it’s like to be a judge.

Remedying that was no easy task. Federal judges are notoriously taciturn, seldom granting interviews or writing tell-all memoirs. The first few judges I approached with a request for an interview told me (politely) to get lost.

Once I finally found one who was willing to let me in—on condition that I wouldn’t reveal his or her identity—I was fascinated by what I found.

For starters, I had no idea how busy federal judges are. You’d think when they hear a case that’s over by 11:30 they’d be tucking into their first gin and tonic by 2. But, no, my judge routinely put in ten-hour workdays, even when there was nothing scheduled in the courtroom. As I have the protagonist muse early in the novel:

From a workload standpoint, federal judges tend to be like ducks: There’s more going on under the surface than anyone quite realizes.

I was also fascinated by how solitary my judge felt. The demands of maintaining proper judicial detachment wore on my judge and the whole staff. At one point, I have the judge’s clerk—who has a pair of fish named Thurgood and Marshall, after his favorite U.S. Supreme Court Justice—say to his boss:

“Sometimes I feel like these guys”—he pointed to Thurgood and Marshall, swimming aimless circles behind him — “like we’re in a fishbowl all the time. It’s just us in this little office suite, isolated from the rest of the world, and we render our decisions and who knows what everyone thinks? It’s not like there’s a comments box in the back of the courtroom.”

But more than anything, what struck me about this character I was creating was how this ordeal I was putting him through—having his children kidnapped and not being in control of what happened to them—was so at odds with his regular existence.

As my protagonist says at the end of Chapter 4 of Say Nothing:

With little more than my own gut to guide me, I routinely make pronouncements that will shape the remainder of peoples’ lives. The wealthiest lawyers in the land kowtow to me. Huge bureaucracies are forced to follow my orders. The most formidable people in our society are but one bad decision away from winding up in my courtroom, begging for my mercy, sometimes literally trembling before me.

I realize it’s the position, not the person, that inspires this sycophancy. I certainly do nothing to encourage it. I am something of a reluctant Caesar. The constant fawning embarrasses me.

It comes with the job all the same.

Whether I like it or not, I represent power.

Whether I want it or not, I have power.

Or at least I used to.

I’m grateful to the judge who talked to me for the time spent and hospitality extended. I certainly couldn’t have written the novel without help from the judge and the judge’s staff. Did I get everything right? I don’t know.

But I guess Ayo can be the judge of that.

Say Nothing by Brad Parks is published by Faber & Faber (£12.99)

Brad Parks is the only author to have won the Shamus, Nero and Lefty Awards, three of American crime fiction’s most prestigious prizes. Say Nothing is his U.K. debut.

More information about Brad Parks and his books can be found on his website.  You can also follow him on Twitter @Brad_Parks and on Facebook

Hush, Hush.... The return of Tess Monaghan

Laura Lippman is the multiple award-winning best-selling author of (currently) twelve books in the acclaimed private investigator Tess Monaghan series and eight New York Times bestselling standalone novels. Her most recent book published in the UK and the US is Hush Hush. She has won numerous awards for her writing including the Anthony, Edgar®, Shamus, Macavity, Nero, Barry and Agatha Awards to name a few! Her books are published all over the world to great acclaim. With the return of Tess Monaghan in her latest novel Hush Hush, Laura Lippman writes about her return and how she dealt with writing about her now that she is a mother.

Tess Monaghan has had a permanent place in my brain since 1992, maybe earlier. The novel that would become my first novel lodged into my head on a sleety November night. A year later, caught in a five-hour delay on a cross-country trip from Baltimore to San Francisco, I began scribbling in a black-and-white composition book about a young woman who — scribbled in a black-and-white composition book. Tess Monaghan, who believed that the autumn was the true beginning of the year, recorded her annual resolutions in early September.

1. Bench press 120 pounds.
2. Run a 7-minute mile. 
3. Read Don Quixtote
4. Find a job, etc. 

More than twenty years and 12 books later, Tess has done all of those things. She has not only found a job, but also opened her own business. She has had a baby, entered into a stable relationship. Her business is solid enough that she can afford to have a partner on her payroll and can generally pick-and-choose among potential jobs. She does divorce work only when financially pressed. She continues to have a nonstop supply of idiosyncratic opinions. (Driving manual transmission is superior, for example.) She is, in short, the most satisfactory imaginary friend that a grown-up could ever have. 

And yet we were apart for most of six years because I didn’t have a clue how to write about her once she had a child. 

There is no formula for the crime novel — how I wish there were! — but there are reasonable expectations. One of those expectations is that there will be suspense, presumably involving the main character. It has been challenging enough, over the years, to respect Tess’s intelligence and the reader’s desire for thrills. I have tried hard to avoid the plot device that my friend Lauren Milne Henderson has described as: “What’s that terrible noise? Let me put on my filmy negligee and marabou-trimmed mules and investigate!”

But it seemed to me, who became a mother two years after Tess did, that a mother would be particularly vigilant about her safety. And if she were not, neither the reader nor I could forgive her. I had read so many reader reviews in which betrayed fans of longtime series proclaimed that they “threw a book against a wall.” I hated the image of my book bouncing off walls. 

Every January, I teach in an 8-day writers workshop. Over a decade, I have found myself

telling my students that no one can write around a problem. There is no amount of style or technique or language that can paper over plot hotels. Characters must be consistent to their characters. And I tell them that when they find themselves trying to write around problems, maybe they should run straight at them. 

So I took my own advice. The problem was that Tess was a mother? Then run right at that subject. Write about motherhood across a broad spectrum, from the most quotidian problems (a tantrum in a grocery store) to the true worst-case scenario (“I killed my child.”) 

Of course, the problem remains. Tess is still a mother. I still have to find ways to provide suspense without making Tess stupid or foolhardy. Where does she go from here? I have no idea. The only thing I know for sure is that we are not done, Tess and I. Yet — Tess deserves a proper ending, a planned ending. She also deserves a break. Because when I am around, life is not so good for Tess. That’s the final irony. I make life absolute hell for my imaginary BFF. Eventually, it has to end. Doesn’t it? 

More information about Laura Lippman and her books can be found on her website.  You can also find her on Facebook.

Hush Hush by Laura Lippman is out now (Faber & Faber, £12.99)

So Don't Give Me Your Ideas by Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman is one of the few authors to have won nearly every single mystery award.  She is best known for writing a series of novels set in Baltimore and featuring Tess Monaghan, a reporter turned private investigator.  Lippman's novels have won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar®, Nero, Gumshoe, Barry and Shamus awards.  Her 2003 novel Every Secret Thing, has been optioned for the movie by Academy Award–winning actor Frances McDormand.  Her 2007 release, What the Dead Know, was the first of her books to make the New York Times bestseller list, and was shortlisted for the Crime Writer's Association Dagger Award.  She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity.  She was recently awarded the first Pinckley Prize for a Distinguished Body of Work for crime fiction, named to honor the memory of Diana Pinckley, long time crime fiction columnist for The New Orleans Times-Picayune.

I have been told by reliable sources that writers hate to discuss their ideas and I don’t doubt it.  But I’ve always felt it as a fair question and one I prefer to inquiries about where a novel lines up with real life.  (It’s a novel.  It doesn’t line up with real life.  Even if it’s inspired by real life, as mine often are.)

So I’m always happy to talk about my ideas.  What I don’t want to talk about is other people’s ideas – that is, ideas that they want me to write; an offer that usually comes with the generous proposal that we then split all proceeds 50-50.  And I can tell, when the offer is made, that the person thinks he’s being more than fair.  After all, the idea is the thing and the writing is just mechanical, no? 

I get ideas, as the old song says.  I never have a problem coming up with ideas.  I once brainstormed my way to a new novel in the 20 minutes it took another writer to deliver a completely stupid talk on inspiration.  The talk infuriated me, as I found it ethereal and not at all helpful to the would-be writers to whom it was addressed.  As refutation of its indifference to pragmatism, I decided to have an idea on the spot and I did, via old-fashioned brainstorming.  The result was I’d Know you Anywhere (published in the UK as Don’t Look Back) and it was one of my most successful books to date.

So, please don’t give me your ideas.  Even if they are very, very, very good – and some are – I won’t have the emotional attachment I need to write.  I won’t listen to anyone else’s ideas.

Unless you’re married to me.  My husband, David Simon, was the person who first suggested there was a story to be found in the real-life women who surrounded a legendary Baltimore numbers runner, Julius Salsbury.  (Yes, that’s the correct spelling.)

 

I really couldn’t see it at first.  Salsbury, facing a 15-year sentence on mail fraud charges, disappeared in the early 1970s, never to be seen again.  He left behind a wife and a girlfriend.  Rumour had it that he managed to provide for everyone.  Rumour also had it that he sneaked back into Baltimore from wherever he had gone, but I always doubted that.  In fact, it seemed to overlap with the tradition of Elijah, the invisible spirit who slips through an open door at Passover to take a sip of wine.  A nice legend, but probably nothing more.

My husband provided all the information, but all I heard, the first few times he made his case, was wife-girlfriend, wife-girlfriend.  A triangle.  I don’t have much to say about triangles, other than the observation that they’re tragic.  At least one person is hurt, usually two, often three.

But one day, when he made his pitch yet again, I focused on a detail that had escaped me before – the missing man had three daughters.  So now I had five women, five points on a star.  I like the number five.  I like stars.  When I was a teenager, I was such a nerd that I created a series of geometry theorems based on stars.  If you draw a star as I was taught to draw one, with a series of five slashing lines, you create five triangles – but they are anchored by pentagon.  Now that’s a form I find interesting.

It also gave me a chance to write about three different generations – a woman born at the end of the Depression era in the United States, two daughters born in the post-World War II Baby Boom and a third child, showing up a decade later in the so-called Generation X.

In many ways, After I’m Gone is a Valentine to the women of my mother’s generation, who did more with less.  Bernadette “Bambi” Gottschalk Brewer is a young woman who has the intelligence to succeed in college, but lacks the will.  She marries at the age of 19.  Her daughters have more choices, more options.  Are they happier?  That question is as central to the novel as the whereabouts of Felix Brewer and the identity of the person who has, many years later, killed his mistress, Julie Saxony.

The result was what I believe to be my best novel to date -- certainly my favourite to write.  But I still don’t want to hear other people’s ideas.  Unless you marry me first. 

After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman is out now, priced £12.99 (Faber & Faber)

You can find more information about Laura Lippman on her website and you can also find her on Facebook and you can also follow her on Twitter.

Criminal Splatterings

According to the Bookseller, Selina Walker has bought three crime novels from author and journalist Tony Parsons.  The first novel, titled The Murder Bag, kicks off a crime series featuring detective and single parent Max Wolfe.  In The Murder Bag, Wolfe - father to a five-year-old girl - is called in to investigate a nasty killing, which leads him from the backstreets of London's West End to the corridors of power in Westminster.

Congratulations also go to Paul Finch who has also signed a five-book deal with Avon.  According to the Bookseller, his second book Sacrifice has already had over 10,000 pre-orders in e-book format ahead of its summer release.

If you have somehow managed to miss the results of the awards given at Crimefest then they are as follows-

Sounds of Crime: Standing In Another Man's Grave by Ian Rankin; Read by James MacPherson (Orion Audio)

Last Laugh: Killing the Emperors by Ruth Dudley Edwards (Allison & Busby)

eDunnit: Bryant & May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler (Doubleday)

H. R. F. Keating Award: British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia by Barry Forshaw, editor (Greenwood World Publishing)

The shortlists for a number of the CWA Daggers were also announced – 

The CWA International Dagger:
Alex by Pierre Lemaitre, translated by Frank Wynne (Quercus)
The Missing File by D.A. Mishani, translated by Steven Cohen (Quercus)
Two Soldiers by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström, translated by Kari Dickson (Quercus)
Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas, translated by Siân Reynolds (Harvill Secker)
Death in Sardinia by Marco Vichi, translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Hodder & Stoughton)
The Collini Case by Ferdinand von Schirach, translated by Anthea Bell (Michael Joseph)

The CWA Non-Fiction Dagger:
Midnight in Peking by Paul French (Penguin Viking)
The Boy in the River by Richard Hoskins (Pan Macmillan)
Against a Tide of Evil by Mukesh Kapila, with Damien Lewis (Mainstream)
A Fine Day for a Hanging by Carol Ann Lee (Mainstream)
Injustice by Clive Stafford Smith (Random House)
Murder at Wrotham Hill by Diana Souhami (Quercus)

The CWA Ellis Peters Historical Dagger:
The Heretics by Rory Clements (John Murray)
Pilgrim Soul by Gordon Ferris (Corvus)
The Paris Winter by Imogen Robertson (Headline)
Dead Men and Broken Hearts by Craig Russell (Quercus)
The Twelfth Department by William Ryan (Mantle)
The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins)

The CWA Short Story Dagger:
“Method Murder,” by Simon Brett (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Volume 10, edited by Maxim Jakubowski; Constable)
“Stairway C,” by Piero Colaprico (from Outsiders, edited by Ben Faccini; MacLehose Press)
“Come Away with Me,” by Stella Duffy (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Volume 10)
“The Case of Death and Honey,” by Neil Gaiman (from The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Volume 10)
“Ferengi,” by Carlo Lucarelli (from Outsiders, edited by Ben Faccini; MacLehose Press)
“Lost and Found,” by Zoë Sharp (from Vengeance, edited by Lee Child; Corvus)

The CWA Dagger in the Library:
• Belinda Bauer
• Alison Bruce
• Gordon Ferris
• Christopher Fowler
• Elly Griffiths
• Michael Ridpath

The CWA Debut Dagger:
The Assassin’s Keeper by Aine Oomhnaill (Ireland)
Call Time by Finn Clarke (UK)
TAG by Sue Dawes (UK)
Working in Unison by Alex Sweeney (UK),
Lesson Plan for Murder by Marie Hannan-Mandel (USA)
Honour or Justice by Ron Puckering (UK)
Torment by David Evans (UK)
When the Bow Breaks by Jayne Barnard (Canada)
Fighting Darkness: The Killer Trail by D.B. Carew (Canada)
Born in a Burial Gown by Mike Craven (UK)
The Journeyman by Emma Melville (UK)
A Cure for All Evils by Joanna Dodd (UK)

The winners will be announced during on July 15 in London. Also included on July 15 will be the presentation, to Lee Child, of this year’s Diamond Dagger and the announcement of CWA’s Gold, Steel, and John Creasey Daggers Nominees. 

Congratulations also go to Liza Marklund whose novel Last Will won the inaugural Petrona Award for Scandinavian Crime Novel of the year.  The winner was announced by Barry Forshaw.

Over in the Guardian the question has been asked why Nordic detective stories / films are so successful.  Lots of interesting responses.  In addition, there is an interesting article on whether crime fiction is the new punk.

Very good article in the independent on Nordicana that took place over the weekend (15 & 16 June 2013).

Madrid is also due to host their sixth crime fiction festival.  The festival is due to take place between 17 to 27 October 2013 and France is due to be the guest country.  Tributes will be given to Georges Simenon and his protagonist Maigret.  More information can be found here (in Spanish)

For those of you that can’t get enough of Icelandic crime fiction will be pleased to note that Iceland are due to host their first festival of crime fiction.  Iceland Noir is due to be held at the Nordic Cultural Centre, Reykjavik on Saturday 23^rd November 2013 and Sunday 24^th November 2013.  Amongst the well-known authors due to attend include Anne Cleeves, Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, John Curran and Quentin Bates.

Congratulations also go to Jorn Lier Horst whose novel The Hunting Dogs recently won the Norwegian Glass Key for the best Scandinavian crime novel.  The Hunting Dogs is due to be published  in the Spring of 2014. Jorn Lier Horst is also due to attend the first Iceland Noir crime festival.

In the Independent, Helen Brown talks to Louise Doughty about her psychological thriller.  Apple Tree Yard, which is about a successful, professional woman whose life, is upended by an affair.

The trailer for the new Wolverine film has been released and can be seen below.

Congratulations also go to Peter Robinson.  ITV have commissioned a third DCI Banks series.  According to the Independent, the show will dedicate two episodes each to three stories based on the books and are called Wednesday’s Child, Piece Of My Heart and Bad Boy.  Information from ITV can be found here.

Sad news for all of us that are waiting and looking forward to the sequel to Sin City – Sin City: A Dame to Kill For instead of it being released in October this year, it looks as if it will not be seen now until August 2014.  Still, it looks as if it will be worth waiting for with

Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis and Rosario Dawson all reprise roles, while Josh Brolin, Eva Green, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dennis Haysbert, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Juno Temple and Stacy Keach are the new recruits.  More information can also be found here and here.

Extremely sad news to hear that author Vince Flynn has passed away.  He was suffering from long-term prostrate cancer.  According to CBS Minnesota, he died on Wednesday morning.  Vince was the author of 15 novels centred on the character of Mitch Rapp, an undercover CIA agent.  More information can be found here.

Also recently and rather sadly, Joan Parker the widow of Robert B Parker passed away (Hat tip to Mystery Fanfare for the news).  More information can be found here and here.

The 2013 Nero Award finalists have been announced.  The finalists are –

Antiques Disposal by Barbara Allan
Truth of All Things by Kieran Shields
Burning Midnight by Loren D. Estleman
Dead Anyway by Chris Knopf

The Nero Award is presented each year to an author for the best mystery written in the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe stories.  It is presented at the Black Orchid Banquet, traditionally held on the first Saturday in December in New York City.  The Nero Award celebrates literary excellence in the mystery genre. More information can be found here.

The Telegraph’s film critic Robbie Collin has chosen his 10 best thriller films of all time.  The list can be found here.  Pleased to see The Third Man on the list along with Taxi Driver and Silence of the Lambs.

Fans of Luther and Idris Elba will be pleased to know that he will be back on our screens shortly.   Elba will star in four new 60-minute episodes, alongside Warren Brown and Ruth Wilson.  The first instalment of series three will feature John Luther (Elba) tackling a "twisted fetishist", who appears to be a copycat killer of an unsolved case from the '80s.

The  trailer for the new series can be seen below –

An interview with Idris Elba can also be found here.

Also according to FirstShowing.net Elba is due to join Javier Bardem, Sean Penn and Ray Winstone in the thriller The Gunman.  The Gunman is based on the novel Prone Gunman by French author Jean-Patrick Manchette.

To celebrate playing Hercule Poirot for twenty-five years, David Suchet gives an fascinating interview in the Scotsman.

According to The Hollywood Reporter Channel 5 have picked up Stephen King’s Under the Dome.  It is due to be shown on Channel 5 in the fall.

According to the Radio Times, the TV series of Fargo which is based on the Coen brother's 1996 film is due to be filmed in Canada.  The series will be a 10 episode series and is due to be released in 2014.

If you are like me and are looking forward to the new Vin Diesel Riddick film then you will be pleased to see that a trailer has been released.  The trailer can be seen below –

Riddick: Rule The Dark is due to be released on September 6 2013.

According to Screenrant, Morgan Freeman is in talks to star in Luc Besson’s film Lucy which also stars Scarlett Johansson.

According to the BBC an all-star cast has been confirmed for the adaptation of Death Comes to Pemberley by P D James. The cast includes Jenna Coleman, James Fleet, Penelope Keith, James Norton and Trevor Eve to name a few.

Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman are set to star in The Thirteenth Tale by Helen Setterfield. The 90 minute drama will be shown on BBC Two and is a haunting psychological mystery set in the modern day, with poignant flashbacks starting in 1940.  More information can be found here.  Filming started in June and it is due to be shown later on this year.

BBC Four have acquired Belgian thriller Salamander. Everyone has secrets. But these can bring down a nation. In a private Brussels bank, 66 safe-deposit boxes are raided. The owner of the bank wants to keep the thefts under wraps but police inspector Paul Gerardi catches wind of the affair. With his incorruptible, old-school morals and devil-may-care attitude, Gerardi throws himself into the investigation, and when some of the key players are murdered, commit suicide or vanish, soon realises just how big the case is.  Gerardi discovers that the victims are members of a secret organisation called Salamander, made up of the country's industrial, financial, judicial and political elite, and the safe-deposit boxes contained their most intimate secrets - secrets that could bring down the nation. As he becomes the target of both the criminals and the authorities, Gerardi must quickly find out what their agenda is. And who is behind the thefts... Salamander will be shown as 12 x 60 minute drama series.

Various dramas to look out for include Top of the Lake which is due to be shown on BBC Two and is a six part drama about a detective obsessively investigating the disappearance of a twelve year-old pregnant girl. Quirke which is based on the book by Benjamin Black is a three part series which takes us back to the 1950s Dublin.  Quirke, played by Gabriel Byrne, is the chief pathologist of the city morgue.  His attempts to solve sudden deaths take him from smokey damp alleys and whiskey bars to elegant moneyed houses. Quirke is due to be shown on BBC One.  Mark Gatiss is due to adapt The Tractate Middoth, an MR James ghost story for Christmas.  The Tractate Middoth is due to be shown on BBC Two.

Crime fiction news!

December’s Edition of Getting Away With Murder (GAWM) includes: Shots of the Year

And now the moment the world of crime fiction has been waiting for…the awards which come with no ceremony, no prize money, little accolade and no celebration (unless you happen to be in the Four Ale Bar of The Carpenter’s Arms on Tuesday night). The Shots of the Year awards (often misheard) are made based on careful consideration of the 550 or so crime novels and thrillers published for the first time in the UK in 2011 by a panel of at least one democratically-elected judge. (And I use the term ‘democratically’ in its loosest, North Korean sense.)

The categories are for best crime novel (Crime Shot) and best thriller (Thriller Shot), funniest novel (Comic Shot), best crime novel/thriller in translation (Shot In Translation), best first novel (First Shot) and best historical mystery or thriller (Historical Shot).

Crime Shot of the Year, after much deliberation, goes to Three Stations by Martin Cruz Smith (Mantle), the new Renko novel which chillingly invokes the underside of modern Moscow and made us all remember what an important figure in crime fiction Renko is and has been for, incredibly, thirty years now.

The Thriller Shot of the Year title goes to South African Deon Meyer for his superb tour-de-force Trackers (Hodder) which combines a spy plot worthy of Le Carre (“spy the beloved country”) with several tense and violent criminal sub-plots and a complex and stunningly impressive narrative structure. All in all, a masterpiece of South African crime writing; which is rapidly proving to be the bench-mark of international crime fiction.

The 2011 Historical Shot goes, without question, to the disgracefully overlooked A Lily of the Field by John Lawton (Grove Atlantic). An immaculately researched thriller set in pre-war Europe and post-war London which takes in the Nazi Holocaust, Russian espionage and the development of the atomic bomb, but at heart it shows off what Lawton does best, which is to cast a worldly-wise, left-leaning, eye of the foibles of English society. This is a wonderful addition to the Detective Inspector Troy canon (Lawton’s Troy family novels have spanned the period 1930s-1960s though not necessarily in chronological order), and Troy, who has been on the scene for 16 years now, is one of the major characters of British crime fiction; and one of the most unsung.


The Shot in Translation goes to a new name in the UK, Domingo Villar for his Death on a Galician Shore (Little, Brown) which introduces a new detective duo, some memorable minor characters and some delightful insights into provincial Spanish life which are worth the price of admission alone. A translated crime novel with warmth and heart? Who’d have thought it?

First Shot, in a year which saw fewer than usual debut novels, has to go to the widely-applauded Before I Go To Sleep by S.J. Watson (Doubleday), which is an outrageous “high concept” thriller brought off with confidence and élan, even if the dramatic conclusion is slightly confusing.

Comic Shot of 2011 is Carl Hiaasen’s Star Island (Sphere). It might not have the frenetic energy and hysterical set-pieces of his early work such as Tourist Season or the blissful Double Whammy, but then what could? Still, this is Hiaasen back on top form and picking his targets (pop stars and, as usual, property developers) with gleeful malice.

Faber and Spitalfields Life mark the bicentenary of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders -

The 7th December marks the bicentenary of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders, documented by P. D. James and T. A. Critchley in The Maul and the Pear Tree. Faber and Faber are working with influential lifestyle blog, Spitalfields Life on a series of events that trace the case as it unfolded between 7th December to 31st December 200 years ago. Please see the attached press release below for details of the events, which conclude with a murder mystery walk around the sites of this notorious case on the 28th December.

This Christmas, Spitalfields Life and Faber and Faber commemorate the bicentenary of the Ratcliffe Highway Murders – Britain’s first murder sensation - as retold by P.D. James in her classic of true crime, The Maul and the Pear Tree.

For release on 6th December 2011

On the 7th December 1811, a young linen draper and his family were cruelly murdered at night in their home at 29 Ratcliffe Highway in Wapping. Twelve days later, a publican and members of his household were slaughtered in similar fashion, just half a mile away.

The slaying of these innocent families created public hysteria amongst Londoners - whipped up by newspapers revelling in the gruesome details of the atrocities. Ill-equipped to investigate, on Christmas Eve the police hastily arrested the first suspect they could find, John Williams, and when he hung himself in prison on Boxing Day, it was taken as confirmation of his guilt.

180,000 people turned out to see Williams’ body paraded through Wapping, before he was buried with a stake through his heart at the crossroads of Cable Street and Cannon Street Road on New Year’s Eve. Yet it is now acknowledged that he was - in all likelihood - an innocent man.

At the birth of the British press, the Ratcliffe Highway Murders case was both the first national crime sensation and an early example of “tabloid justice” - engendering a widespread terror that led subsequently to the formation of the Metropolitan Police.

Between 7th -31st December, East End Culture Blog Spitalfields Life and Faber and Faber are collaborating on a series of events to keep everyone gripped:

MAPPING THE MURDERS

www.spitalfieldslife.com and Faber and Faber have commissioned illustrator, Paul Bommer, to create a map of the murders that will update, revealing key events in the case on the exact anniversaries of their occurrence. This beautiful creation can be downloaded as a screensaver or used as a handy guide to set out through the streets of Wapping yourself.

TELLING THE STORY

An extract from The Maul and the Pear Tree, the definitive account of the murders, by bestselling crime writer P. D. James and her former Home office colleague T. A Critchley, will be published on Faber and Faber’s blog www.thethoughtfox.co.uk, whilst www.spitalfieldslife.com will be reporting these momentous events day by day.

EXAMINING THE CRIME SCENES

Spitalfields Life will be hosting a dusk walk on Wednesday 28th December at 3pm from St Georges in the East, visiting the key locations and telling the bone-chilling story of Britain's first crime sensation. The walk will take approximately an hour and a half and conclude at the historic riverside pub The Prospect of Whitby. Please email spitalfieldslife@gmail.com to sign up. Tickets are £10.

For further information please contact:

The Gentle Author, Spitalfields Life: spitalfieldslife@gmail.com

Joanna Ellis, Faber and Faber: joannae@faber.co.uk

Orion sculpts 20th anniversary releases -
According to Charlotte Williams at Book2Book, Orion will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012, marking the milestone by re-releasing 20 of its most distinctive titles with a united cover look using specially commissioned sculptures.

The books will be released on 20th February 2012, priced between £4.99 and £9.99. The 20 titles are:

The Copper Beach by Maeve Binchy,

The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser,
The Black Ice by Michael Connelly,

Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon,

Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder,

Black and Blue by Ian Rankin,

The Reader by Benhard Schlink,

A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer,

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds,
Tell No One by Harlan Coben,

Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore,

The Shadow of the Wind by ­Carlos Ruiz Zafón,

Himalaya by Michael Palin,

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver,

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse,

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday,

No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay,
DeadUntil Dark by Charlaine Harris,

Life by Keith Richards, and

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht.

The publisher took inspiration from china, which is the traditional 20th anniversary gift, with the team—including designer Loulou Clark and creative director Lucie Stericker—working with sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies to create physical sculptures of a central motif or character for each of the titles. Each sculpture was then photographed to provide the cover image for the books. Stand-out covers include sculptures of an open copy of War and Peace, with real German text inscribed into it, for Schlink's title; a jumping salmon for Paul Torday's novel; and a topographically accurate mountain for Palin's Himalaya. The Roman numerals XX will be embossed on the inside front covers, alongside the cover images from the entire 20 titles.

Orion m.d. Susan Lamb promised the titles would be collectable, and said of the list: "It had to be quite balanced, but it was the books we think defined this company over 20 years, whether they've been with us since their first publication, like Maeve Binchy and Antonia Fraser, or not. The Tiger's Wife, which was only published this year, was very defining for us, because we hadn't had an Orange Prize winner before."

As impressive as this list is and one is quite pleased to see a number of crime writers on the list as well, could someone please explain why George Pelecanos and James Lee Burke are not on the list?

The Random House Group UK is delighted to announce the publication of Jo Nesbø's eagerly-awaited sequel to his #1 bestseller The Leopard. Phantom will be published in English on 15th March 2012. The Norwegian edition went straight to the top of the bestseller list in Norway and was shortlisted for the 2011 Norwegian Booksellers' Prize.

In 2011 Jo Nesbø was one of the UK's biggest selling fiction authors of the year. The Leopard was a #1 Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and spent eight weeks in the top ten. The Harry Hole novels have sold over 11 million copies worldwide, 2.4 million of those in the UK. They are published in many countries.

Jo Nesbø's The Snowman is being made into a major film directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Working Title. The Snowman, published by Harvill Secker in 2010, went to number 2 in the Sunday Times paperback charts, and was a top ten New York Times hardcover bestseller.

For more information please contact:
Bethan Jones at Harvill Secker
Tel: 020 7840 8543 / email: bjones@randomhouse.co.uk

According to book2book Little, Brown Book Group are growing their Sphere fiction commissioning team with the appointment of Jade Chandler from Orion. Chandler joins Sphere as Commissioning Editor focussing on crime and thriller fiction and will also take a lead in backlist reissues for the imprint. She will report to Editorial Director, Catherine Burke. Chandler said, 'Working at Orion has been a brilliant experience and while I will be sad to leave an excellent and supportive group of colleagues, the opportunity to take on a new commissioning role at Little, Brown was just too tempting to pass up. I am really thrilled to be joining the Sphere team in the New Year and can't wait to get involved in building on their first-rate crime and thriller list.'

Caffeine Nights Publishing have announced their title list for 2012.

The titles will be released from March 2012 and include a strong line-up of crime fiction titles including the second in the series of books by Nick Quantrill. The Late Greats follows his debut novel in the Joe Geraghty series, Broken Dreams. Quantrill's books follow private eye Joe Geraghty in a series of tough crime fiction stories set in Quantrill's home town of Hull.

Another series title is Consequences by RC Bridgestock, following 'Deadly Focus’ the first DI Jack Dylan novel. RC Bridgestock is the pen name for Yorkshire born but Isle of Wight based husband and wife writing team Bob and Carol Bridgestock. The Bridgestock's bring 47 years of crime fighting experience to the page, with both having served with West Yorkshire police. Bob retired as Detective Superintendent of the squad.

Two other spring releases dominate Caffeine Nights planned books for 2012.

Frank's Wild Years by Nick Triplow is already being hailed as a crime classic.

Mike Hodges director of the urban classic gangster movie 'Get Carter' describes Frank's Wild Years as ''An urban masterpiece; riveting from first to last. Nick Triplow is the true successor to Ted Lewis."

Set in south London 'Frank' is a story of betrayal and last chances at the frayed and fading edges of the south London underworld.

Abide with Me by Ian Ayris is already setting the chat rooms and fan forums of West Ham supporters alight with his debut novel. Set against the backdrop of West Ham winning the FA Cup in 1975, the story follows two boys growing up in a tough East End environment where love and pain are often blurred by poverty and confusion. Abide With Me is a powerful and moving tale with more heart than transplant bank and butchers window put together.

For more information contact Darren on 07777 640795
info@caffeinenights.com/www.caffeine-nights.com

According to the Bookseller, the CWA are to launch a reader’s initiative under the guise of the Crime Readers Association (CRA). The full Press Release can be read below -

PRESS RELEASE

Date: 7.12.2o11

CWA launches two major new initiatives to connect writers with readers

The Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has announced two major new initiatives, an association to put readers in touch with writers and the expansion of the successful Crime Writing Week to an entire month next year.

Due to launch in February 2012 with a new website, the Crime Readers’ Association (CRA) will offer readers information about forthcoming books, exclusive interviews, and articles from CWA member authors. Readers will be invited to sign up to receive regular enewsletters featuring events, exclusive content, and news. In future, it’s planned that the CWA will also organise events for readers to meet authors.

National Crime Writing Week, which has run for two years, has seen members of the CWA taking part in readings, discussions, readers’ group events and workshops in bookshops, libraries, arts centres and other venues all over the country. The CWA has now decided to expand it to Crime Writing Month, beginning at the Crimefest event which runs between May 24-27 in Bristol and features some of the planet’s most successful crime writers. In a new initiative, Crime Month will wrap up with a black-tie event, where the CWA Dagger Awards will be announced. The event will incorporate all of the CWA’s non-TV awards, including for the first time the Diamond Dagger and Ellis Peters Award for historical crime.

CWA Chair Peter James said: “We’re very excited about launching these new initiatives. The idea behind the CRA is to bring readers and writers closer together. The CRA will create a bond between fans and writers and promote further the crime writing genre.

“In an age when crime writing is so popular it made sense to find a way of helping writers and readers connect. Authors could not survive without readers and the CRA acknowledges the fact and celebrates the role of the reader in the burgeoning success of the genre. The CWA has showcased members’ events and books on our website for several years now– wee see the CRA is an extension of this and we hope it will help our members to grow their careers.

“Crime Writing Month further underlines the point. Running it over a month will allow members to take part in more events than ever, getting out to meet their readers and support their local libraries. The CWA has long been concerned about the threat to libraries and Crime Writing Month will allow us to champion them as they face cutbacks. The month should be a really exciting event.”

More details of both initiatives will be announced over the coming months.

NOTES TO MEDIA
Bestselling crime author Peter James is the current Chair of the CWA. Peter James is available for quotes and interview. Please contact Claire McGowan on 07792 214508 or info@thecwa.co.uk for more information, or visit www.thecwa.co.uk
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Congratulations also go to Canadian author Louise Penny whose novel Bury Your Dead was awarded the Nero Award on Saturday 3 December 2012. The award was presented by the Wolfe Pack at the Black Orchid Banquet in New York.

The other nominees were -

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

The Book of Spies by Gayle Lynds

The Midnight Show Murders by Al Roker
Think of a Number by John Verdon

The "Nero" is an annual award presented to an author for literary excellence in the mystery genre

Crime Time Best Crime Novel of the Year
According to Barry Forshaw the editor of Crime Time, Crime Time is running a seasonal Best Crime Books of 2011 feature, and he would be delighted if authors would care to contribute – with an opportunity to mention your latest book. He does not need an essay; in fact his plan is to drag CT kicking and screaming into the 21st century so is aiming for Twitter sized soundbites (tweets?) -- 140 characters or less. You can pick one book, or as many as you’d care to fit into that count.

At present Crime Time reaches around 45,000 dedicated crime fiction enthusiasts a year at crimetime.co.uk, so this is a chance for authors to promote yourselves (and your books!) by adding your selection for Best Crime Book of 2011.

Go to the Crime Time website: and just fill in the form on the right. Note that your email will not be visible to anyone on the site. The ISBN is optional – don’t worry about this unless you have it.
And don’t forget to mention your latest book under ‘shameless plug’!

Those of you that are looking forward to the Hollywood remake of the Steig Larsson book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will not be surprised to learn that rather unfortunately the embargo has been broken by the New Yorker film critic David Denby. The film that gets its world premiere in London on Monday 12 December 2012 features Daniel Craig in the role of investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist.

A new eight minute trailer has been released.